$5 Million Dollars to Promote Marriage with Government Funds
Posted by Alexander Evdakov (Mar 2,2009)
This has to be one of the most interesting piece of news that I came across in quite some time. Everyone knows the economy is in terrible condition not just nationally but globally. Just recently the Goverment announced that it will spend nearly $5 million dollars, yes thats $5,000,000 to promote the benefits of marriage and tips on having a healthy marriage.
The whole campaign is based on advertising a website that educates a group of 18 to 30 year olds www.twoofus.org targeted through Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and so on.
After visiting the website the site is pretty informational and the layout is definately geared towards a younger demographic. However it also contains information for people who are already married.
The main question I am wondering is how this will effect the younger demographic. Me personally since I do fit in that age bracket... I browsed over the website, read a few articles, skimmed the community and out of there. The key question to me is.... will this be a successful campaign to where it DOES raise awareness and is a useful portal to its target visitors?
There are two sides to this:
1.If the website increases marriages that are more successful, there could be a tendancy to have less divorces. This could mean less weddings and it COULD hurt the wedding vendors who get repeat customers throughout their career.
2. On the other hand if people are living a healthier life and have a successful marriage, then it raises their standard of living and personal happiness.
Which way do I lean? I'm not sure at this point. However, I do think it is important to educate our youth about marriage, but maybe we should do it SOONER than 18 years of age? I think it may be more important to educate the 13 to 19 age group since it could stay with them longer and avoid unplanned pregnancies. They may be more inclined to wait to have a great marriage before having kids.
In the end I still think people will make their own choices and the website will be just another referance point to get information.
Your Author is Alexander Evdakov
Alexander is a professional digital artist and entrepreneur from Florida. He started his digital design career over 12 years ago focusing on brochures, business cards, and website development under his parent company Dakov Group.com and does freelance photography under Dakov Photography. He is also the creator of BoxWedding.com. Alexander studied marketing and advertising at the University of Florida.