Ad for widow dating site is buried

A dating site aimed at widows has been caught trying to hoodwink people into joining by telling them it was exclusively for those whose partner had died, when in fact most of the people on the site are simply single.
An ad for widowdating.co.uk stated: “We try to help single widows and widowers in the UK meet someone special. It’s not easy to lose a loved one and you can never replace that person, but it can ease some of the pain when you can share your life again with a new friend.”
It went on to say: “Widow dating is the one of the largest dating websites for single widows and widowers in the UK.”
But one woman who joined the site complained that the claims were misleading because she had discovered that most of the members were not widows or widowers.
Widow Dating said the site did not claim that it was exclusively for widows and widowers, pointing out that single, divorced or separated people could also join the site.
It claimed to have tested the site as both a male and a female member and found that the default search showed members who were predominantly, but not exclusively, widowed.
Upholding the complaint, the ASA said the prominent heading “Widow Dating” and text on the site suggested that members would be widowed people looking to meet other widowed people.
The text saying that the site was also open to single or divorced individuals was “insufficient” to counteract the overall impression that it was for widowed people.
Ruling the ad must not appear again in its current form, the ASA said: “Because Widow Dating had not supplied evidence that showed that was the case, we concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and were misleading.”

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