VeggieDates website falling foul of advertising standards – and your hot date too

Stacia Briggs Monday, January 16, 2012
4:14 PM

In any article about vegetarianism, it is illegal not to mention Hitler, lentils and “rabbit food” – which means I’ve accomplished my brief within the first paragraph and need continue no further.

But continue I will, because I have a page to fill and my request to find a picture of Hitler eating lentils with a rabbit fell on deaf ears, even though I offered to draw one myself.

This week, the VeggieDates.co.uk website – which shows a blonde woman feeding a man a slice of yellow pepper with chopsticks, which is, incidentally, how all we vegetarians pull a man – has fallen foul, and possibly fowl, of the Advertising Standards Authority.

Despite claiming that it offers the chance “to meet single vegetarian men and women looking for love in the UK”, in a search of 50 profiles of male and female members of VeggieDates, only two were found to worship at the altar of Quorn.

A spokesman had to admit that it was one of several dating websites which shared a database of customers, but that the majority of members were “non-vegetarians and non-vegans”.

He added that the site – VeggieDates – did not state it was only for vegetarians and vegans and that members could indicate whether or not they were a vegetarian by ticking a box on their dating profile.

“Although we here at VeggieDates try to ensure that we give you the best possible service, we cannot guarantee that non-vegetarians won’t join the site,” he said.

I am imagining lots of awkward first dates at restaurants: “what do you mean, you fancy the chicken?!”

• This article was original published on October 3, 2011