It takes a certain kind of courage to do what Lisa Catalano is doing to find love.
On her growing TikTok page, she taped herself, effervescent and smiling alongside Highway 101, introducing herself as the woman trying to find love on the local freeway.
Catalano has purchased digital billboard space in strategic places along Highway 101, advertising the website she created, MarryLisa.com.
The site is exactly as it sounds. Lisa is using it to try and find a husband, and she is neither shy or nebulous about her intentions.
“I figured, you know what, I’m just going to make my own website,” Catalano said. “And then I was like, you know, well, I have to promote the website somehow. How am I going to do that? And then you’re just driving along 101 and you see all these digital billboards and I figured, well, hey, it’s a very local form of advertising. It’s targeted. Yeah, captive audience if you will.”
Captive because Catalano timed the eight-second rotating ads to be displayed during the morning and evening commutes, optimized to reach the maximum number of potential suitors possible.
She has thought of everything, it seems.
On her website, you can read about her life and interests, but you can also see anonymous testimonials from friends and family, browse photos of her and even submit an application for a potential date.
Catalano, who describes herself as a woman of many hobbies, runs her own vintage clothing store and creates lifestyle content for YouTube. She loves cats, bright colors and drinking a nice glass of wine. She lives a full life but noted her deep frustration with dating, and explained that it seems as if it has gotten more and more difficult.
She described her displeasure with constant swiping on apps, trying to eagerly get to know prospective suitors but often being ghosted or disappointed by various forms of bad behavior from strangers on first dates.
So she decided to come up with what many might describe as a more radical approach.
“When I first told my friends and family about it I think at first everyone was shocked and then questioning whether or not this was a good idea. And then after it took anywhere from ten minutes to two weeks for people to kind of be like, you know what, sure. Okay. Why not?”
Since Catalno purchased the billboard spots and taxi top ads, she’s enjoyed a slight uptick in traffic to her website and has found herself going viral on TikTok with hundreds of supportive comments from strangers (with a few cruel words sprinkled throughout).
“I was definitely prepared for negative comments. Very prepared for negative comments. Because of course you’re always going to have those. I was not prepared for the volume of positive comments.”
At 42 years old, Catalano said she is laser-focused on trying to meet the right man. She wants to have a family, and said that is the main motivator for her up-front approach.
“I want to make sure that when I start to date someone, that there is not something that’s going to come up that’s a dealbreaker for me six months or a year into the process,” she said.
