Tag Archives: dating advice
Paktor's GaiGai dating service partners Mediacorp for brand awareness push
Paktor’s GaiGai has partnered with Mediacorp’s Channel 5 to launch a brand new 12-episode series is set to premiere on 27 August 2018, titled Hungry for Love. The reality dating show will see three bachelors and three bachelorettes find their one true compatible match. Each bachelor and bachelorette starts off with three suitors and suitresses vying for their affections before finally rewarding their favourite suitor and suitress with a Dream Date.
Prior to each Dream Date, certified relationship managers and image consultants from GaiGai and Paktor’s Fleek will provide guidance and personalised advice on a range of dating topics such as personal grooming, body language and dating etiquettes. In a statement to Marketing, Paktor’s spokesperson said when Channel 5 first presented this idea, Paktor was confident that it was a proven formula for a reality TV series to work well with the brand.
Furthermore, Paktor felt the idea of bachelor/bachelorette has always been popular with local audiences. By marrying entertainment value from the dating reality show and the merits of GaiGai, Paktor feel that Hungry For Love will allow it to showcase its competencies as the largest dating agency in Singapore.
As a brand, Paktor hopes to tap on the TV show as an anchor for Paktor’s Q4 marketing efforts and expand on the show to a 360 marketing campaign to effectively showcase Paktor as a modern and professional dating agency. Paktor will be looking to run a Hungry For Love promotion that entitles all members to discounts off dating packages. All marketing efforts, including print and online advertorials, TVC, OOH and digital ads, will run with a similar theme, visual and messaging.
Later this year, GaiGai has also partnered with One Faber Group to hold a two-day event, “Love in the Air”, in conjunction with Singles’ Day. Participants can expect a speed-dating experience in Sentosa cable cars, decorated to create a casual setting for singles. Additionally, interactive booths and games will be set up that aims to allow singles to connect in a “fun, comfortable and genuine environment”.
Speaking on the business objectives of both campaigns, Paktor’s spokesperson said the main objective for both campaigns is to increase awareness and build credibility for the brand. Paktor also sees this as a valuable opportunity for it to work with established partners and aim to have a halo effect on its conversions and lead generation.
Man finds that living with his folks isn't a turn-on
Dear Amy: I’m an attractive 29-year-old gay man. I couldn’t afford my own place, due to overwhelming student loan debt and other financial issues. I moved back in with my parents, and have been living with them for over a year.
My dating life has taken the hardest hit. I have a good job and I take care of myself. However, I’m always embarrassed to bring up the fact that I live with my parents. I feel as if they will judge me. Oftentimes, I lie and say I live in my own place in the city (which is no way to start off any relationship).
I don’t want this to stop me from dating. However, it doesn’t help that I compare myself to other gay men who have nice apartments and are more financially stable.
Obviously, moving out is a goal, but I’d like to start dating – sooner rather than later.
How do I get over this? And how should I address it with potential suitors? I feel like this has been holding me back so much.
– Wondering
Dear Wondering: The student debt crisis has forced many adults into uncomfortable situations; I suggest that you own this, with humor.
Read more:
You say, “That’s right – I’m an attractive, well-employed 29-year-old man living the dream of cohabiting with my folks! Every day I wake up in my old bedroom, stare at my old Lance Bass poster and head out to work. The upside is – I’m paying down college debt and due to move out soon. Plus, sometimes my mom lets me have Lucky Charms for breakfast.”
Dear Amy: What’s your advice on how to survive extreme loneliness?
I am alone in the world. I have no parents, siblings or extended family.
I have teenage children who visit me for a couple of hours each week, but I am more like a grandmother to them than a mother. They are part of their father’s family, not mine.
And although I am a fairly attractive woman, I have not been able to find a boyfriend, despite meeting almost 100 men through online dating sites throughout the years.
I have a few friends, and go to meetups and even organize them. I do enjoy myself at times, but at the end of the day I am alone and have nobody to wish me good night or good morning or to ask how my day was.
It is taking a toll on me. I am alone 95 percent of the time, and don’t see how I can survive the rest of my life like this (I am only in my 50s).
And although I am not suicidal now, I feel like if this loneliness goes on for another 10 years or so, I will be.
I am not religious and don’t believe in God, so I don’t have that to keep me going.
– Lonely in the ‘Burbs
Dear Lonely: You present a few clues to your predicament, but don’t provide details. Your children, for instance – you don’t live with them and don’t seem to have much of a relationship with them. And the 100 men you’ve met through online matching sites – presumably there were opportunities there, which you seem to have missed. Your loneliness may stem from your own problems relating to people.
The most obvious solution for you would be to get a housemate. Many people your age (and older) don’t want to live alone, and, just as the internet has helped to match you with potential romances, you can use this resource to find potential housemates. Several sites specialize in roommate matching specifically. Also put the word out among people you know.
Another option is to adopt a house pet. Animals can make amazing companions; if a cat, dog or bird bonds with you, it will provide an ever-flowing source of amusement and affection. You may also find it easier to relate to an animal companion.
While you are testing your options, I hope you will also seek counseling to discuss your issues. A therapist will help you to recognize patterns in your own life, with a goal of changing them for the better.
Dear Amy: Your reply to “Maybe Auntie,” who wasn’t sure about the actual parentage of her “maybe” niece or nephew, was both beautiful and poignant!
If only every baby were welcomed into this world with love, regardless of their DNA. I hope that Maybe Auntie will love this baby!
– Proud Auntie, Heather
Dear Proud: Making a choice to love a baby and welcome it into the world is both compassionate – and easy.
You can contact Amy Dickinson via email: askamy@amydickinson.com. Readers may send postal mail to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or “like” her on Facebook.
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Pick-up Artist Behind 'Super Seducer 2' Isn't Trying to Spark Controversy
Richard La Ruina is a self-proclaimed dating guru who thought it would be a good idea to make a full-fledged video game. The result was Super Seducer, a confusing amalgam of live-action segments meant to help men navigate the dating scene, which sparked an immense controversy online. YouTubers mocked the game’s lack of self-awareness, since you play as La Ruina trying to chat up women actors and find the “right” thing to say. Controversy breeds success, and Super Seducer sold more than 85,000 copies since its release in March. Now, a sequel is on the way in September: Super Seducer 2: Advanced Seduction Tactics.
Newsweek spoke to La Ruina via phone, much to this reporter’s chagrin. Chomping on a bag of crinkly food throughout the entire interview, La Ruina seemed like a cross between The Room creator Tommy Wiseau and Mystery from VH1’s The Pickup Artist.
Can you tell me a little bit about Super Seducer 2?
Richard La Ruina: It’s the follow-up to the famous Super Seducer. It’s a dating sim, and it’s equal parts entertaining, fun and a learning tool. It’s full-motion video, choose-your-own-adventure, there are 600 choices, 12 hours of videos. We think it’s the biggest FMV game ever. There’s a lot to say about it.
Were you surprised at the reaction to the first Super Seducer?
Yeah, I was a little bit. I really thought that in gaming, people were so used to seeing female characters that were there just for their sex appeal. The character designs in AAA titles, it’s games that get 10/10, that have sexy women. We really thought that with Super Seducer we wouldn’t have any problem because it was just a dating sim with a 16 rating. We understood some of the comments in retrospect, but at the time we made it, we were naive for thinking it would be fine.
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Did you have any experience with the world of gaming before attempting to make a game?
(Crinkly noises) No, only as a player. I had the Sega Master System.
What were some of the most shocking responses to the first Super Seducer, in your view ?
I understood the articles that wanted to paint it as all negative, with the clickbaity title. The one that jumps to mind is a blamanche of ineptitude that said ‘the acting, the music, the way it was shot were bad.’ That objectively isn’t accurate, you could at least have found something in the game that was well done. What I didn’t like, along with my wife and everyone involved, was the stuff that was inaccurate. There was a Guardian article that said that it was a harassment simulator, training the next generation of Harvey Weinsteins. Just factually inaccurate.
Why is that factually inaccurate?
Because the game doesn’t reward any behavior that would be considered harassment or illegal. (Bag crinkles) The Guardian had to withdraw the article. There are things within the game that you shouldn’t do, and those are the red options. I don’t see how anyone would play the game and see that you were supposed to do or take the lesson that that would work.
When making Super Seducer 2, what steps did you guys take so you could avoid some of the problems of the first?
Ignoring the stupid complaints, like the game encourages harassment, there were real problems. Why are there sexy girls on the bed? Yeah, we probably didn’t need to do that. Why don’t we get a female perspective and dating tips that will be more valuable to guys, instead of just hearing me? The first game focused on locations rather than specific problems, and the second game has the female perspective levels. What does a woman do when she’s looking for a man, what’s the psychology? What’s the wrong way and the right way? What’s the challenge of an Asian guy trying to seduce a Western woman? An older man trying to find a younger woman? We haven’t tried to make the people happy that will never be happy with anything that I do.
Now you seem to be adding race and age-related content to the game. Are you trying to make something controversial?
No, I’m not at all. If we wanted to do that, I would have done the first game very differently. It’s hard to see how I could have conceived it as controversial because we decided to add feedback. Grand Theft Auto doesn’t give you feedback when you kill someone. In Assassin’s Creed, there’s no system telling you that stabbing is bad. The fact that we included that step was to give further reinforcement not to do that stuff in the real world.
You weren’t trying to be controversial with the first either, YouTubers often described the game as “cringey.”
There’s a type of humor, like Ricky Gervais and Inbetweeners, that’s cringe awkward humor.
(Audible groan)
The game has to have something, or else it wouldn’t have 20 million YouTube views. (Crinkle of chip bag)
My opinion about why the game picked up was how ridiculous it was. How clueless it made the main character seem and how these options that you picked were the correct ones to get the girl. I used to watch those pick-up dating shows on VH1 when I was in middle school. You tried to make the dating world seem so simplistic, which it really isn’t.
I don’t know, I’ve got a lot of credentials in the area of dating advice. I don’t need to say ‘I’m a dating guru and should be listened to,’ you can just look at my personal and media page. I’ve been a guru on hundreds of different things, given dating advice, training people and being put into situations where I prove that this works. Whatever people think of the game or me is fine, but objectively people like my advice.
Scene from the new Super Seducer 2 RLR Training
Would you say you have an ego?
As much as anyone else… I’ve got an ego on things I’m talented in.
Can you tell me a bit about how you tried to add a female perspective when creating Super Seducer 2?
Male and female approach to dating is very different. A man is genuinely the one who would make the first move, make the invitations and requests. A woman, who’s meeting a lot of men, is thinking if they are good or not. It gives a totally new dimension to the game because it is different. I started a dating advice company for women that’s now worth millions and millions. We could have made 10 levels for women but we weren’t sure how the players would think, so in this sequel we put in two.
Do you think these games have helped anyone’s dating life?
Yeah definitely. I’ve got emails and seen plenty of comments that have taken this seriously and done well. This isn’t new for me, it’s been my job and sole income since 2006… If you’re going to ask if I help people, you can read the reviews of my book on Audible and Amazon and see what people think. They have no reason to lie and there’s a lot of reviews.
They have no reason to lie on the internet. That’s an interesting take.
It’s a book on Amazon and there’s a lot of reviews. It’s on Audible and I think you can only read a review of the book if you listen to it and buy it. It’s like if I said I’m a lawyer, you wouldn’t be asking me if I was a good lawyer.
Being a lawyer and a dating guru aren’t the same thing. You have to go to school to be a lawyer and have accreditation. You have things on your website.
But, 12 years. (More crinkling)
What do you hope is the legacy of Super Seducer?
I’d like it to be well-received, commercially successful and have a positive impact on people.
Amy Dickinson: Ex-boyfriend becomes current-colleague
Dear Amy: I’ve worked at a medium-sized company for 13 years.
I attended an office lunch for new employees last week, and was totally shocked to see my ex-boyfriend, “Kieran,” among them! He had accepted a job and started at the company the week before.
We acknowledged each other at the lunch, but I was so shocked that I didn’t say much to him, and left as soon as I could.
We dated for almost two years, and called it quits about three years ago. At the time, I’d caught him lying about where he was and what he was doing. I didn’t trust him anymore, so I ended it.
It was a bad breakup. We haven’t talked since. We don’t follow each other on social media.
I am dating a great guy now. I’m pretty sure that Kieran is still single.
Kieran reached out to me over email, apologizing for the awkward workplace encounter, and asked if I wanted to grab coffee. I told him I’m not ready. I want to be fair to my boyfriend’s feelings, too. (I haven’t told my boyfriend about this, yet.)
Shouldn’t Kieran have contacted me before he accepted a job at my company? Isn’t that selfish on his part?
How should I deal with this situation now? — Upset
Dear Upset: How strange — that the lying, selfish guy you broke up with three years ago isn’t behaving the way you want him to now.
Given that you have no contact, he does not owe you a heads-up about his employment, however (I’m assuming that neither of you supervises the other).
Behave professionally and cordially if you encounter him. Otherwise, ignore him. If you don’t want to have coffee, don’t; you don’t need to explain yourself. Tell your current boyfriend that “Kiernan” is working at your company. Keeping this a secret only ups the ante.
Dear Amy: How do I tell my cheap girlfriend that she needs to pitch in? We’ve been dating for over a year. On the rare occasions she takes me out, I have to pay for at least part of it. She’s even gone as far as saying that she’s taking me out, but then (miraculously) I end up paying!
For example, she recently “treated” me to a “free” comedy show. I ended up buying dinner for both of us.
One show she took me to cost me $120 in souvenirs and booze.
If she buys dinner, I pay tax and tip. When I take her out, I end up paying for everything — ticket costs, dinner, transportation.
Her cost of living is much higher than mine, so I always used this as an excuse, but I recently lost my job, and she has managed to pay for two solo vacations this year.
Do I speak up when the bill comes? Before we go out? Sit down now and have a serious talk?
I just don’t know how to address this without coming off as resentful. — Feeling Used
Dear Feeling Used: Relationships operate using their own sort of currency. And, just like with money, you and your girlfriend each needs to invest in the relationship, with a goal of long-term gain.
In your case, you tolerate behavior you don’t want to tolerate, feel resentful about it and then wonder how you can fix the dynamic without being honest about it.
If you had started this process when your relationship was in its earlier stages, it would either have been fixed by now, or you might be in a different relationship with someone who shares these values.
Although you should never have to justify being honest about your own feelings, you recently lost your job, and this presents the perfect reason to have “the talk.”
Say, “I know we never spelled this out, but I really need to talk about how we divide our spending when we go out. I’ve always spent far more than you on our relationship, and honestly, I’ve resented it but I haven’t said anything. Now that my situation has changed, I can’t afford to keep quiet. Can we work together to make our spending more balanced?”
Dear Amy: Thank you for highlighting the issue raised by “Baseball Mom,” who witnessed a gifted young player being berated by his parents on the sideline.
I have spent the last 20 years sitting in the bleachers as my children play sports at various levels, and have witnessed some absolutely appalling behavior. — Sports Dad
Dear Dad: Youth coaches and parents responded similarly.
