Hasta La Creative!

A mother bought a full-page ad on the front cover of the Chinese Melbourne Daily—a newspaper for the Australian city's Chinese community—begging her son to come home for Chinese New Year and promising not to pester him about getting married anymore.

The ad reads: "Peng, we have tried to reach you so many times by phone, but in vain. So maybe you will hear from us here. We hope you will come home for Lunar New Year. Dad and Mom will never again pressure you to marry. Love you, Mom."

Now everyone in the community will be curious to see whether Peng actually comes home—but you know, no pressure or anything. The mom's promise references a common problem among Chinese youth, who don't like getting nagged by their parents about their love lives any more than the rest of us do. This might also explain why Chinese online megastore Taobao.com's "Rent a Boyfriend" service exists.

Sadly, there's no girlfriend option for the poor guy being targeted by the Melbourne Daily ad, so he might just have to go home on Jan. 31 and make the best of it. His mom spent almost $2,500 on that ad, judging by the newspaper's advertising rate card. It would be a shame to see that go to waste.

Photo via CNN.