Bad PR

Like mother, like daughter: Women are more likely to cheat on their husbands if their mothers were unfaithful too

They say ‘like mother, like daughter’, and now new research reveals an unexpected twist to the adage.

A poll of 2,000 Brits found that women who cheat are often following in their own mother’s illicit footsteps.

According to the research, seven out of ten women who cheat on their husbands have mothers who were unfaithful too.

Source: Daily Mail, 6 May 2014

The Daily Mail, here, advancing the hereditary hypothesis of infidelity. However, the source of the statistics ought to offer a pinch of doubt:

The results were revealed in a new poll of 2,000 people who have had affairs by Illicit Encounters, Britain’s biggest extra-marital dating site.

Not only is this story nothing more than a simple advert an online hook-up site, but it features an interesting take on statistics, too: even assuming the results are accurate (and that’s not an assumption we ought to make lightly), what we’ve found isn’t a truism about the general public, as the survey sample included only people who had signed up for a cheating website.

If you only survey people who have elected to join a site like ‘Illicit Encounters’, you haven’t gathered the opinions of those who have offline affairs… or those who have no affairs at all. Thus it’s perfectly possible (and, indeed, likely) that children of cheating parents (male or female) don’t go on to sign up for a help-me-cheat website, and therefore don’t appear in the statistics of this particular PR piece.

Of course, why let the facts get in the way of a good publicity opportunity?

Women are FOUR times more likely to seek out affairs after a lackluster Mother’s Day, according to cheating website

Mother’s Day this year was a success for some, a letdown for others, and for many women across the U.S., such a disaster that it sent them into the arena of affairs.

AshleyMadison.com, the world’s biggest cheating website, has revealed that 17,000 moms signed up to their site on Monday in hopes of hunting down extramarital liaisons.

That is over four times the number of a usual run-of-the-mill Monday, reports AshleyMadison - which boasts 26 million members worldwide and whose slogan is: ‘Life is short. Have an affair.’

Source: Daily Mail, 16 May 2014

As ever in Bad PR, separating the message of the data from its source is impossible - instead of real sociological research, this is nothing more than an online hook-up site touting for business in a national newspaper.

Two million Brits have hooked up with an office crush at their Christmas party (and 1m are going just to flirt with a colleague they fancy) 

Looking to seal the deal with a colleague you have a crush on this festive season?

You’re not alone because nearly one million Brits are heading to their Christmas party in the hope of becoming closer to a colleague they fancy, according to a new study.

And it seems they may be in luck because two million Brits have admitted to hooking up with a colleague at the December event.

Of the 11 million people heading to events this week, those aged between 25 to 34 are the most likely to get lucky, with a presumptuous six per cent even considering booking a hotel room to continue the festive flirtations.

Source: Daily Mail, 9th December 2013

Christmas is just around the corner, and with it comes the opportunity for a drunken fumble at the office Christmas party with that someone special from HR - after so many exchanged glances over the photocopier and in disciplinary hearings, it’s basically a foregone conclusion by this point, right? Definitely! Especially if you believe reports in the Daily Mail recently. 

Although, that said, it’s worth having a quick look at the company behind this valuable Christmas party poll:

A spokesperson from Hotels.com mobile app, who carried out the survey, said: ‘After working longer hours and being more careful with spending over the year, it’s understandable that hard-working Brits want to let their hair down and the Christmas party is the perfect opportunity for this to happen. 

'But while it’s fine to indulge, if you do find yourself getting into an embarrassing situation, having a phone handy can help get you away quickly and easily – from booking a cab to finding a hotel at the click of the button – so you don’t need to worry about explaining yourself to your colleagues the next day!' 

Hotels.com - cashing in on drunken sex, year upon year, just as the little baby Jesus would have wanted.

Men spend HALF as much as their partner does on sexy Christmas lingerie because they’re terrified they’ll get it wrong 

Women spend almost twice as much as their men on their sexy Christmas lingerie, according to a new survey.

In the hope of becoming a sexy Mrs Claus this year, ladies will spend £47 on new lingerie over the festive season.

However, if men are in charge of buying the gifts, they spend almost half as much - just £24.

But the difference in spending isn’t because men are skinflints - they are worried of completely misjudging their lover’s tastes so they tend to opt for the first sexy slip that they see and leave it at that.

Source: Daily Mail, 4th December 2013

Christmas is just around the corner, and with it comes the culmination of weeks and months of present-purchasing. However, where men are concerned, not everything is all rosy - there’s a good chance their significant other will be significantly let-down come Christmas morning, given the total inability of men to buy lingerie.

A spokesperson for Bluebella, who commissioned the survey, said: ‘Women today know what they want and are feeling more empowered than ever before to enjoy buying beautiful underwear which makes them feel gorgeous and confident not just in the bedroom but in the boardroom too.

'The fact they buy three times as much as men is great for both parties - she feels fabulously sexy and confident in lingerie that suits her perfectly and he gets to enjoy the new view.

'Men tend to impulse buy when it comes to underwear and go for the first sexy slip they see. They're probably unsure if their partner will like their choice so they prefer to spend less. If he gets it wrong, it can put him off buying lingerie for a while but it doesn't have to be this way.

Still, Bluebella - the lingerie firm - believe men oughtn’t be put off by the fear of failure:

'If he gets it right, it is the gift that keeps on giving.'

To summarise the results of Bluebella’s survey: women are great at buying lingerie, and ought to continue doing so, lots; men are useless at buying lingerie, but should continue to do so. It’s nice to see the marketing tactics of Bluebella are as see-through as their knickers.

Too much cuddling is worse than breaking wind in bed with a new partner (plus the world’s creepiest sheet-sharing stories…)

What’s the absolute worst thing a new partner can do in bed the first time you share one with them and are trying to get to sleep?

Surprisingly, most of us would rank being too liberal with the cuddles as more irksome than either having dirty sheets or even breaking wind, according to research.

Hogging the duvet and snoring also sat high on the list of biggest turn-offs for first-time mattress mates, and the results have now been developed into a guide to bed-sharing etiquette.

Source: Daily Mail, 19th November 2013

Bedroom bugbears now, with an exhaustive and extensive list of what turns us on and turns us off in bed. High on the list of what we love is ‘a big bed’ - which makes sense, given the source of this ‘data’:

According to research from memory foam mattress specialist Ergoflex, 41 per cent of respondents said excessive cuddling was the biggest turn-off for a first-time sheet-sharer.

If you’re looking to please your partner in bed, an Ergoflex mattress should be high on your list, according to Ergoflex mattresses.

Not tonight darling, I’m watching Corrie: Women would rather watch TV than have sex, study reveals 

It is not the most romantic of conclusions, but a new survey has found that women would rather spend the night in front of the television, cooking a nice meal or even reading a book rather than having sex with their partners.

In fact, women were more than six times more likely to choose a night in front of the telly than have sex, with 39 per cent of them opting for the TV rather than a paltry six per cent who said they would prefer a night of passion.

Source: Daily Mail, 18th November 2013

Playing neatly into a stereotype, we have the finding in the Daily Mail that television shows and soaps matter more to women than sex.

Rather than go into detail on why this is utterly ridiculous and genderist nonsense (for example, there’s nothing to stop someone having sex after seeing Coronation Street, not since the Les Battersby left the show), it’s worth instead simply highlighting who this is an advert for:

Gidon Katz, director of NOW TV who commissioned the survey, said: ‘As winter approaches it’s not surprising that a night in is more appealing, and it seems the lure of a new series or the chance to catch up on a show that everyone’s talking about beats going out in the cold.’

If anybody is going to know the importance of television, it’s the director of NOW TV, obviously.

Those keeping a keen eye on statistics in the media last week would have been confronted with the revelation that a shockingly-high percentage of our educational elite are less than intelligent where safe sex is concerned:

A quarter of students will catch an STI in their first year

Half aren’t even sure who they got it from.

University is certainly a time for fun and frolics – but new research suggests that some students may be taking their partying a touch too hard, and endangering their health in the process.

In fact, 23 per cent will catch an STI before they finish their first year of university, half of whom (54 per cent) aren’t even able to remember who gave it them, according to a survey conducted by shagatuni.com.

Source: Independent, 17th October 2013

A QUARTER of students catch an STI during their first year at university - and half are too drunk to remember who gave it to them

It is known as a time to let your hair down while at a safe distance from your parents.

But new research suggests many students are risking their health through irresponsible sexual habits.

Some 23 per cent of students admit to having caught a sexually transmitted infection during their first year alone, according to a new survey.

Source: Daily Mail, 17th October 2013

On the surface, both of these stories appear to be responsible pieces of reporting - if it’s indeed true that vast swathes of university attendees are endangering their health by practicing unsafe sex, it’s commendable and important that the media are taking steps to highlight and tackle.

However, as is often the case with PR-led data in the media, the source of the story can entirely undermine the message - especially when the content of the news article or press release is often nothing more than a delivery mechanism for the brand name of the company who originated the story. In the case of this report on the prevalence of STIs in the student population, that company is a no-strings-attached hook-up site aimed at university students:

The poll, rather ironically conducted by the website www.shagatuni.com, also revealed that 21 per cent caught an STI after their first year but before they finished their studies.

Source: Daily Mail, 17th October 2013

For those unaware of who shagatuni.com are - and I expect that’s the vast majority of you - I’ll let them explain in their own words:

We’re the naughtier and sexier sister site of DateatUni.com

Our sole purpose is to help students meet up for sex. This isn’t an ordinary student dating site. We offer a space for students to get laid any night of the week and not have any of the strings attached with dating. So if you want to find sexy students at your university who just want a shag, JOIN UP! We’re sure you’ll have fun!

Source: shagatuni.com

It may seem counter-intuitive that a site aiming to advertise themselves to students would run a lead about the prevalence of STIs, but the real purpose of the release is actually buried a little below the lead - to advertise the promiscuity of their members:

The research also revealed that theatre studies students appeared to be the most promiscuous, with an average of 28 sexual partners while at university.

Source: Daily Mail, 17th October 2013

A message which ties in somewhat neatly with their own sales pitch, taken again from their website:

Whether you’re a shy student who feels more comfortable making introductions online or a university player who needs to guarantee they’re getting action each night of the week - our site accommodates every type of student. We even get female students sign up who are already in a relationship. We don’t judge! When you’re away from home and away from your partner for that length of time, we understand you have sexual needs to be fulfilled.

Source: shagatuni.com

It may well be that the statistics in the original articles in the Mail and Independent are actually accurate - but it’s certainly cause for concern that they’re obtained via a self-reported poll on a site dedicated to helping university ‘players’ guarantee themselves some ‘action each night of the week’. 

There are other causes for concern, too - take for instance the headline statistic that 23% of all students will catch an STI by the end of their first year. This would be a deeply alarming figure if taken from, perhaps, records at the student health clinic or STI clinic - however, taken from a self-reported poll on a site such as ‘shagatuni.com’, it’s impossible to take seriously.

For one, there’s no accounting for students who had an STI prior to joining university, but only discovered it or received a diagnosis while studying. On the flipside, there’s also no guarantee that the respondents to the poll actually even had an STI - it’s not beyond the reaches of a teenage boy to give false positive responses as a puerile joke; after all, it’s only an online poll on a hook-up site, it’s not like it matters, right?

Perhaps more damningly, despite all reports claiming the 23% figure represented all students, in fact only a subset of students were eligible for the poll:

The poll, which only involved people who had remained single while at university, also revealed that 73 per cent of students were under the influence of alcohol when engaging in the majority of their sexual encounters.

It’s therefore unlikely to assume those questioned in the poll are reflective of the full university population, given that those in stable relationships (and presumably therefore less likely to be engaging in the kind of sexual behaviour most associated with a high risk of contracting an STI) weren’t included.

That said, an even more glaringly confounding sample bias is clearly at play here: only students who elected to sign up to the site ‘shag at uni’ were included in the survey. Even amongst the student population who consider themselves to be single, it’s unlikely that those polled are representative - it’s strongly possible that those who would seek out and sign up to a site such as this may engage in riskier sexual behaviour, and with multiple partners. In essence, that’s the very business model of this website.

So, in summary, we have a relatively niche subset of a subset of a population, likely predisposed to more risky sexual behaviour, self-reporting in an online poll with no verification of their answers, and no incentive not to report a false positive as a joke. Hardly groundbreaking research.

Nor is it a difficult statistic to critically examine: the number of students currently at university in England alone is around 1.6million, of which we can reasonably assume no more than 600,000 are in their first year at university. Meanwhile, according to the HPA there were 450,000 STI diagnoses in England in 2012 - meaning that the 23% of first year students contracting an STI represent 30% of the overall STI diagnoses for the entire country. Even if we were to assume every other year of university sees an unblemished record of sexual health, it seems tremendously unlikely that university freshers represent almost a third of all STI cases.

Of course, none of this renders the underlying assertion that large numbers of students are engaging in unsafe sex and contracting STIs - but this poll and the associated news coverage can barely be said to offer anything on the matter, given the compromised motives of the data source and the flawed methodology of the survey.

Still, at least you can remember the name of the website, so the only aim of the whole story was a success.

This post was originally published in the Guardian, 23rd October 2013.

Fancy an office romance? More than 80 per cent of British people would say yes… but only if it’s with the BOSS!

A staggering 80 per cent of us would prefer to unearth their perfect partner at work, a new study has revealed.

According to the 2,000 men and women polled, hunting for a new partner is easier at work because there’s no awkward getting-to-know-you stage involved.

But not just any colleague will do. 73 per cent of the women asked said that they would rather date a man in senior role, with 61 per cent revealing that they find a powerful male more attractive than any other sort.

Source: Daily Mail, 13th November 2013

With more and more people spending more and more of their lives, it stands to reason that busy people looking for romance may find it hard to look beyond the water-cooler. If only there were ways of meeting new people quickly and risk-free?

The reasons for this, according to the Flirt.com survey, included the amount of alcohol consumed during the office festive bash and because eagle-eyed colleagues will be watching your progress.

Speaking about the results, a spokesman for the dating site said: ‘We spend such a large proportion of our lives at work so we wanted to find out what our singles actually thought about getting together with a colleague.

'What we found is that most people have thought about someone at work at some point, and many more have acted upon it.'

So, it’s a straight choice: get into a messy office romance, or check out this particular dating site.

You love your iPhone more than me! Almost half of cheaters admit they strayed because partner paid more attention to their mobile

If you don’t want your partner to cheat, then new research suggests you should spend less time on your smartphone.

According to a recent survey, almost half of those questioned admitted they have cheated while in a relationship because they felt second best to their partner’s mobile.

Some said they felt their other half paid more attention to their phone than they did to them, checking them during meals, while watching a film, in the middle of an important conversation and even immediately after sex. 

Source: Daily Mail, 11th November 2013

It sounds ludicrous that someone would stray in a relationship due to their partner’s love of their iPhone, and that’s for a very good reason - the story is almost certainly nonsense, due in part to its provenance:

Dating website Victoria Milan surveyed 6000 of their members and found 45 per cent would cheat, or have cheated, on their partner because they felt they paid more attention to their phone or tablet than they did to them. 

But why would the dating site be pushing this anti-smartphone rhetoric in their press release? The next line makes it all clear:

Ironically, those seeking an affair because their partner snubbed them for the smartphone would use their own mobile to meet someone new.   

Sixty-six per cent of respondents insist that they wouldn’t be unfaithful at all without the help of new technologies - the internet in particular.

While the article overtly blames the iPhone addict for their partners desire to find someone new, the covert intent of the seded story is to highlight the use of technology in helping someone cheat on their partner - which, essentially, is the very business model of dating website Victoria Milan.

Doctors and nurses named the sexiest dates

DOCTORS and nurses are the sexiest workers in Britain.

They beat competition from soldiers, police officers and firefighters in a poll of 1,500 adults about which profession they found most attractive.

Around 30% of women said they fancied doctors and 26% of men said nurses were their favourite, research by website Uniformdating.com found.

Source: Daily Star, 22nd November 2013

People really go for someone in uniform, according to this research - research carried out by a dating company, naturally:

Amy Coles of Uniformdating.com said: “It’s surprising to see so many reverting to stereotypes.

“In talking to many of the uniformed singles on our site, we have found one thing to be true, many are undoubtedly heroic in the work they do and the services they provide.”

Uniformdating.com are a dating website who describe themselves as ‘for people who wear uniforms, or who like people who wear uniforms’.

With the definition of what constitutes a uniform remaining vague, and how often a uniform has to be worn for it to qualify for the website remaining equally vague, it’s fair to say uniformdating.com could describe themselves as a dating website for ‘people’.

Of course, that would take away from their faux-niche appeal - the one factor which affords them media coverage in the first place.