With the approach of Valentine’s Day, the nation braces itself for the annual assault from retailers – each competing for our attentions with collections of chocolates, flowers, champagne and other perhaps sometimes unimaginatively packaged symbols of modern love.
Trying to be a little different, online floral gifting retailer,
FlowersDirect , talked to their customers and found that they really did want something different this year. In an email survey, the company discovered a fact quite revealing of the nature of contemporary relationships. This was that 70% of couples reported that ‘sin’ was a significant driver in their love life. And topping the charts of the Seven Deadly Sins, ‘Lust’ perhaps unsurprisingly nowadays, was seen as far more preferable than its corresponding so-called Heavenly Virtue - which church goers will know to be ‘Chastity’. This virtue has low appeal, apparently, according to the same survey.
“When we saw this swing towards ‘sin’, we thought we’d join in the fun by launching our
Seven Deadly Sins Range of flowers and chocolates,” comments Marketing Director, Michael Duffy. “It’s an imaginative collection that puts a bit of spice into Valentine’s – because that’s what our customers were clearly asking for. They said they wanted a bit of raunchy fun to compliment the usual Valentine’s theme of romantic purity.”
Asking its customers to rank the Seven Deadlies in ‘favourite order’, ‘Lust’ again topped the chart, with a 35% share of the vote.
“But while ‘Lust’ requires a bit of a proactive attitude to find its fulfilment,” adds Duffy, “a good proportion of people aren’t going to be doing much about it. That’s because ‘Sloth’ was the second ranked favourite sin (17% share), so in our office we speculated most folk can’t be bothered with the pursuit of steaminess!
Others will probably be pigged out on the sofa, having stuffed themselves with a too large box of chocolates. That’s because ‘Gluttony ‘was the third most favourite sin amongst our very honest customers.”
Developing the theme, Flowers Direct have placed a fun survey on their website where people can determine for themselves whether it’s sin or virtue that drives their relationship.
“Most people start the survey by claiming to be virtuous,” says Duffy. “But as we’ve found, some 70% of them definitely veer more towards sin. But who are we to be judgemental – we’re just flogging Valentine’s Flowers after all! Our beautiful bouquets definitely spark envy in non-recipients. And that’s a deadly sin too.”
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