Mike Duerksen from Winnipeg, Canada, had a lovely idea: he would take his girlfriend on a carefully orchestrated, 12-hour marathon date, visiting their special places all day — ending in an engagement ring. Adorable. What’s not adorable? Constantly tweeting throughout.
The #MikeProposes Twitter gimmick was, of course, a hit with Twitter. As mentioned, it’s adorable! Mike Duerksen earned lots of new followers and supporters who wanted to vicariously date someone as thoughtful as Mike Duerksen. “This guy @mikeduerksen is tweeting his day long proposal live…IS SHE GOING TO SAY YES?! #MikeProposes,” wondered one nail-biting follower. “2nd challenge: rain’s thwarting plans for walk along the river. Good thing I brought HUGE umbrella. #MikeProposes,” dished Mike. You can see the appeal! Appealing for everyone except Mike Duerksen’s girlfriend:
1st challenge: J. wants me to get off my phone and focus on our time together. #MikeProposes
Uh, yes. She wants you to get off your phone, because you’re clearly in the midst of something romantic and elaborate, and tweeting about it. For 12 hours. The tweets persisted, and of course she said yes — but this will be a marriage spawned out of a Twitter attention grab. Would you want to be Instagrammed with your new ring as soon as you got it? Should one of the most poignant moments of your life have a running commentary? Should love earn you followers? Was this a viral ad campaign for Doritos? [TNW]