Stunt Brides: SF Ad Exec Zach Slow’s $50K Online Marriage Contest

Last year, San Francisco advertising exec Zach Slow raised $10,000 on the Internet to take snarky British hip-hop artist Lady Sovereign on a dream date. A media blitz ensued, and Slow told us he was less interested in romance than the challenge of making "something completely ridiculous and crazy happen."

So we're skeptical that the 28-year-old is truly looking for love with his latest venture: to get 500,000 Internet voters to pay $2 each to select his bride in a Web reality show, The 2 Husbands (www.the2husbands.com). The other wife-seeker is his advertising buddy, Tanner Shea. (Shea, who is gay, says he'd always dreamed of a fairytale wedding to a woman, and that both spouses will be free to have extramarital affairs.)

Claude Shade

Zach Slow.

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• Tanner Shea
• Lady Sovereign
• Roxie Lucas
• Hip-Hop and Rap

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The lucky ladies chosen to walk the two down the aisle will take home $50,000 each.

Slow says he's not seeking fame, and insists it's been too much work to be all about the money. Shea estimates both men will walk away with more than $50,000.

"Obviously there's going to be a bunch of haters, like, 'Are you for real?'" Slow says. "Ultimately, people do get to decide for themselves. But there's some sort of genuineness in all this. ... This is how I get my rocks off, I like to take risks and do new stuff."

Although his saccharine introductory video on the site has convinced some people of his sincerity — a message board on a fan site raves, "Zach seems super REAL to me" — Slow is hoping the bride contestants will be genuine, too. Good luck. One woman vying for his ring says in her video: "I think we could mesh because we're both hot."

In another, a wedding-veil-clad woman named Roxie Lucas says, "Saw Tanner. I want him. Want the money more, but I want him, too."

Both men intend to throw an extravagant Vegas wedding no matter how kooky the winner. After that, they'll see. As even Slow, the nephew of the founder of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of feel-good books, admits, "Divorce is the American way."