Has The Need For Public Proposals Gone Too Far?

It's Valentine's week; a week of love, romance, and no doubt... engagements.  So many guys, all across the world, will be using this holiday as the perfect time to commit their love to the woman of their dreams, hoping she says yes. And many guys also feel the need to get everyone in on the act, making the engagement public. And we've become obsessed with it.

In fact, there was an article in the Gazette about public proposals last week, and how there's at least 2 companies who will help out with this, for a lofty fee of course.

As I guy, I understand feeling the need to make it a big spectacle, if not minimally to make it an extremely memorable moment.  However, as so many of these public private moments have gone viral, we've become a world obsessed with them.  So much so, it seems like we're exploiting them, and robbing the pureness out of the moment.

Take for example what the Today Show has done all week.  I'm a huge fan of the show.  But each day, they have featured another girl being surprised by her guy with a proposal.  And the set-ups were completely obvious to the viewer (although maybe not so to the girl.)  A random girl gets asked to sit on the couch with the team and her mother... nothing suspicious there.  Today, another random girl is asked to come on the show to talk about long distance relationships.  The segment features her guy on video feed which traumatically "cuts-out", because he's actually in studio. That was just 2 of the 5.

It's not that I didn't appreciate the show's attempts to help these guys.  It's that they used it to fill a week with easy segments, cashing in on this couple's special moment. The reason they did it probably paid off for them, as we feel the NEED to observe, and essentially be a part, of these special public private moments.  The couple do get something memorable, as long as its what she truly wanted.

But this video takes the cake.  A radio station decided to utilize the "50 Shades of Grey" craze to help another guy make his public proposal wish come true.  Problem is, it's "50 Shades", where presumably large groups of single women are also in attendance.  Don't you think it kinda ruins the whole experience of the "Harlequin" romance novel on the big screen private moment for them?  But of course it's not about them.  It's about this guy, and this girl... and the radio station cashing in on yet another viral video.

Full disclosure, I had a public proposal. I "ended up" proposing on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  And yes, it was very public, as everyone on the crowded upper platform stopped as they saw what was happening, and clapped. We were recognized and congratulated on the boat ride afterward by so many strangers.  And yes, it felt like we were royalty, and the gluttonous side of me loved it.  However, I do say "ended up" as that was never my initial plan, for the exact reason that it was too novelty.  My original idea was on what was supposed to be the "most romantic bridge" in Paris; the bridge to meet your lover.  However, as we arrived at the bridge, I quickly found it wasn't romantic at all, but the "place to meet your lover" because it was the only foot bridge in the city.  So I ended up moving from the just us moment, to the very public moment.

What are your thoughts on the topic?

Are we too obsessed with these public proposals?