It’s not often, as an editor of a B2B magazine aimed at the maritime industry, that you receive a press release that really knocks you sideways. Let’s face it I am used to getting announcements relating to appointments, product launches, acquisitions and mergers, but today I literally did a double-take at a press release marketing the services of a discrete website offering to matchmake married individuals.

To their credit they had done some research and pitched the content directly at the maritime industry so it was not one of those spam emails that clog your junk box offering little pills with big benefits.

According to the press release married men need to be alert to the fact that their wives may be all too keen to visit the South African Navy festival this weekend in Simon’s Town because sailors apparently top the list of uniform-wearing hotties. Yes – “32 percent of women surveyed said that a sailor boy (sic) tops their sexual fantasy list”.

The press release goes on to inform that “Simon’s Town is full of sailors ready to conduct unofficial naval business especially after long bouts at sea”.

Interestingly the white uniforms of sailors put them in first place amongst uniformed men that women want to have an adulterous affair with. The top five places include

• Sailors – 32 percent 
• Commercial pilots – 26 percent
• Airforce pilots – 19 percent
• Firefighters – 15 percent
• Police – 8 percent

As a magazine that derives its income solely from advertising revenue and necessarily passes on all such press releases to our advertising sales department for follow-up, my instinct in this case, however, was to manually assign it to the junkmail folder.  And so, despite the assurance from the lady who runs the website that female infidelity is on the rise I think there are probably other publications more suited to carry this message.

So don’t go eagerly paging through the next issue of the magazine hoping to find more details. But do remember to pop down to Simon’s Town for the popular annual Navy Festival.