NEW YORK – You come home from a hard day only to find your man lounging on the couch watching television. The sink is full of dirty dishes, dinner needs to be made and the laundry basket is overflowing.
Sound familiar? Well, now you can trade in that scenario for a better one.
In a quirky new video and DVD called the “Incredible Instant Adoring Boyfriend,” your beau greets you with flowers and tells you he’s done your washing, cleaned behind the refrigerator and has dinner ready. He also showers you with compliments and offers to give you a massage.
When popped into the VCR or DVD player, the recording, made by British-based company Lagoon Games, serves as a companion for the lonely-hearted.
“It’s company if you are single,” said Lagoon Creative Manager Jonathan Lim. “When you come home on your own, this way there is someone else in the house with you. Someone says all these nice things to you, and it’s going to make you feel better.”
In the tape, a dashing British gent appears on the screen, immediately making it known that he’s at the viewer’s beck and call and saying all the things a self-respecting lady would want to hear.
“Wow, you look amazing,” says the boyfriend, looking out from the television screen as he lifts weights. “I guess it always takes my breath away when I see you.”
Later, he presents flowers that he bought “for no particular reason other than to tell you that I adore you,” talks with disdain about strip clubs and football matches (“I don’t see what all the fuss is about”), irons while clad only in a towel and reveals that he’s planned a surprise vacation to Paris.
“It’s very tongue-in-cheek,” Lim said. “It’s quite funny.”
First there were matchmaking services, then Internet dating. Perhaps the video boyfriend is the next logical step for frustrated singles seeking love and coming up empty.
Trish McDermott, the “vice president of romance” at online dating service Match.com (search), doesn’t think so.
“It’s someone to come home to, someone to say loving, adoring things to us who doesn’t leave the toilet seat up,” McDermott said. “There are benefits to the virtual boyfriend, but ultimately his charm will fade.”
McDermott said the appeal of the “Instant Boyfriend (search)” will only go so far since he can’t actually follow through on what he says.
“He lures us in with the sexy British accent and promises of a better romantic life but then fails to deliver like so many other bad boyfriends in the past,” she quipped.
But she does think men could learn a thing or two from the video beau.
“This could be an incredible training tool for men,” McDermott said. “They could buy this tape, listen to what women envision a perfect boyfriend being and learn to copy that behavior.”
Interestingly, the script for the “Instant Boyfriend” video was written by a woman, according to Lim.
But the fact that the blond cutie in the tape exists only for his lady could quickly become tiresome, causing women to have a newfound appreciation for the flesh-and-blood men in their lives.
“I don’t think many people would want him as a boyfriend,” Lim said.
The VHS tape sells for $9.98 and the DVD for $13.98 on Lagoon Games, BitWiseGifts and at Urban Outfitters stores.
“The response has been great,” said Kelly Maraghy, Lagoon’s sales manager in the U.S. office. “We’ve had customers ordering 12 or 18 in one week and then ordering again.”
Lagoon makes a similar product in CD-ROM form, in which users can choose from among a selection of virtual adoring boyfriend or girlfriends and then enjoy the flood of compliments and lovey-dovey e-mails that follows.
So far there are no plans to create an “Incredible Instant Adoring Girlfriend.”
“That could be controversial, since she’d probably be a girl in her underwear with tape over her mouth handing you a beer,” Lim said.
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