• NY Times, Friday, January 13, 2006 10:15 AM

In one of the more curious marketing moves in recent memory, Dr. Phil has signed on as spokesperson for online dating service Match.com--perhaps to legitimize the practice as providing more than a convenient way for swingers to meet. Aside from appearing in ads promoting Match.com, Dr. Phil will help lead its users through the dating process with a new interactive program called MindFindBind, containing his self-help questionnaires and video pep talks. Presumably, having a self-help specialist on the site should help Match.com retain more users, who, in theory, wouldn't have much incentive to go back to the site after finding a match. The new TV campaign, created by Hanft Raboy & Partners, uses the following tagline: "We'll show you who. He'll show you how." Match.com is the leader in online dating services with 1.2 million paid subscribers.

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