Groupon's latest deranged deal: STD tests

I receive all the Groupon daily offer emails (Cobone and Living Social too), and pouring over them is a pure delight. It's not just sifting through all the offers to find real gems and deals. Part of my enjoyment comes from spotting all the really strange and random things are also on offer: body slimming shorts, eight candy apples, H2O steam mop, personalised towels, Hello Kitty digestive biscuits, golden playing cards - the list of recent head-scratchers goes on. But one could not overlook the odd offer mailed out this morning: STD tests.

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The Dubai offer was sandwiched like this: Men and Women's Hair Deal/STD Test/Authentic Italian Pizza. Weirdly, and I thought this was the whole business model for Groupon and the like, it did not even offer a discount no matter who bought it. Just 0% savings on a Dh555 test at Scientific Clinical Laboratories, with a description of what sexually transmitted diseases are and a warning that there are 25 of them to be concerned about. The advert was accompanied by a stock photo of a grinning, healthy looking pair of models, who might as well have had word bubbles reading "Us have an STD? Never! We've been tested". Beside them, the little blue and red gift icon, beside the label "Buy it for a friend!"

Now, this would make me go "hmmmm?" anywhere in the world. But in a Muslim country such as the UAE, where people are supposed to be married before they have sexual relations, it's even more confounding.

By 3pm, four people had bought it.