Was the eBay Wedding Invitation Auction a Hoax?

Last week this was the big thing on the internet: some guy in Scotland was selling invitations on eBay to a wedding he didn't want to go to. He said that the groom was a former mate of his, but the bride was a "dog." Bidding on the tickets reached £400, and that was with strict controls to make sure all the bids were genuine. But last night Twinklydog (as the guy called himself) cancelled the auction, admitting that the bride was his former girlfriend and that he was still in love with her. He said he was going to the wedding after all, in a last minute attempt to win her back. I'm undecided about whether the auction was genuine or a hoax all along. I guess as long as Twinklydog remains anonymous we'll never know the real story.

eBay Sex/Romance

Posted on Tue Oct 26, 2004



Comments

I reckon this was not so much a hoax as part of an elaborate and subtle advertising campaign for eBay, to increase pubic awareness of the company and tell people what eBay does without them ecessarily realising it.

The eBay auction mentions http://www.twinklydog.net, which redirects to http://www.sparkydog.plus.com. www.sparkydog.plus.com is a site belongling to an advertising and marketing group called Sparkydog. DNS records show that twinklydog.net and sparkydog.co.uk are registered to the same street address in London, which is also, oddly enough, the same address as the Sparkydog office.

The whole "wedding invites for sale" story was picked up and run by papers all over the world, and particularly in the UK. It got the name eBay in front of a lot of people who wouldn't necessarily come across it, and also explained what eBay does.

By an amazing coincidence, a TV advertising campaign for eBay started in the UK at exactly the same time...

Gosh. Isn't that a lucky break for eBay...
Posted by teuchter  on  Mon Nov 01, 2004  at  08:32 AM
This story reminds me of a related auction on ebay. This guy was auctioning off his ex-wife's wedding gown and all he wanted was a beer for payment. He ends up selling the dress for a few grand. Go figure.
Posted by Joe the Phoenix DJ  on  Sun Mar 30, 2008  at  11:53 PM
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