Not sure how to say it? Let the Love Out Loud game help you create the perfect message for that special person today.
Yes, indeed. Should you be struggling to describe your feelings for your dearest on Valentine's Day, Hallmark has the answer: a card to which you can add your own sliver of amorous audio that, played on opening, will be followed by a selection of music from (a) Celine Dion, (b) Hannah Montana or (c) anyone else milking this particular cash cow).
Also on offer is a selection of four sentiments: Funny, friendly, sincere and other. Other? Oh, the possibilities, the romance of it all.
But wait, there's more. Visit Lady Foot Locker's Internet site and you'll be told how running shoes can be a symbol of commitment.
"Any girl can appreciate a stylish pair of shoes that exude a sense of fashion with a level of comfort she can enjoy for the duration of the day, month, year," the website foams, adding the Valentine's Day-inspired shoe in question is covered in tiny hearts.
"Support her New Year's resolution to stay fit - and keep her thinking of you when she's out for a run, or spinning at the gym." According to online gift service Red Balloon Days, the way we say "I love you" on Valentine's Day differs from 10 years ago.
A 2006 survey found that in terms of gifts, time together was preferred, with 50% of respondents wishing to receive a weekend away and more than half (53%) saying they would most like to give a weekend away as a Valentine's gift.
Nearly a third of people will make a special effort on Valentine's Day, with 31% of men and 28% of women planning the day weeks beforehand.
Of the more than 1000 people who responded to that survey, 68% believed Valentine's Day was too commercial.
However, this does not necessarily stop people from wanting to mark the occasion or, significantly, compelling others to celebrate it.
Romance sometimes may not make sense, but it does have a deal to do with dollars.
Take, for instance, the recent poll conducted by Consumer Link (Colmar Brunton) for the sex lubricant brand K-Y, which claims a quarter of New Zealand women and a fifth of men believe the current economic environment is having a detrimental effect on their relationship.
According to the survey, 19% of Kiwi men want more intimacy with their partner and 27% put romance at the top of their list, followed by a card (25%) and flowers and chocolates (20%).
When it came to the ultimate Valentine's Day treat for women, "greater intimacy" was second at 13%, behind flowers and chocolates at 26%. (Speaking of confectionery, an Auckland chocolate-maker has even created a sweet with aphrodisiac properties for men to mark the occasion.) The pressure for romance has manifested into something not unlike a scene from Mr Bean, in which Rowan Atkinson appears suitably chuffed when he receives a card while dining in a restaurant.
Sure, the card was intended for his birthday, but the point's the same.
Mr Bean may have reserved a seat for one, but he was keen to maintain the pretence that someone else was thinking of him.
And in that, life imitates art: a report last weekend stated eight million Americans admit to sending themselves gifts on Valentine's Day.
"We found there's a big mismatch between what people wanted and what they got and so people were filling the void by buying for themselves," Vince Talbert, of marketing technology company Bill Me Later Inc, said.
Dr Shelagh Ferguson, who teaches marketing, tourism and consumer behaviour at the University of Otago, says Valentine's Day is strongly linked to consumption.
"This is not related to the romance of the occasion, but by an expectation in our culture that romance and love are symbolised by the gift of material items - flowers, jewellery, chocolates et cetera.
"So for many of us, Valentine's Day comes with an `expectation' of gifts. But it's not necessarily about the receiving of these gifts.
"If a person does not give a gift to their romantic partner on Valentine's Day then this appears to communicate a very clear failing on their part," Dr Ferguson explains.
"In other words, their lack of action demonstrates a lack of feeling for their romantic partner and, likely as not, their friends and family, too. "So often the question is asked, `what did your boyfriend/partner get you for Valentine's Day?'.
"The lack of a gift is interpreted as a slight in the eyes of others and the empty-handed lover.
"As consumers, we have two basic choices: either we buy into this value assumption or we reject it."
Another academic laments not only the licensing of love, but the dangers of what she describes as the "commercialisation of sex".
Prof Amanda Barusch, of the University of Otago's Department of Social Work and Community Development and the author of Love In Later Life, says billions of dollars are spent trying to persuade us that only the young and unwrinkled are attractive and lovable.
"Where would these businesses be if we didn't buy their pitches? Of course, what's good for business is not necessarily good for people.
"I think this illustrates the damage that can be done when we treat people as commodities. One need only watch commercial television for an evening to see an advertisement designed to persuade us that ageing is unattractive.
"In one ad for men's hair colouring, a handsome grey-haired man is repulsed by a young blonde woman he tries to pick up in a bar.
"He goes to the bathroom and colours his hair brown. When he returns to the blonde as a `new man', she greets him rapturously and leaves in his arms.
"There was a study sometime about the effect of television on men's assessment of their partners. They found that the more television a man watched, the less he thought of his partner's attractiveness," Prof Barusch says.
"Of course, there are several possible explanations, but these authors suggested that the constant presentation of air-brushed versions of unusually attractive people led men to judge their partners harshly.
"My impression is that this is more true of American television than of British or New Zealand television.
"There is a whole body of literature that I think of as `market-based' that does this; academics explaining unrequited love, for instance, as `loving up' - that is, loving someone who, in the mating market, rates higher than you do on factors like physical attractiveness, wealth and power."
Prof Barusch also points to the work of an Israeli sociologist, Eva Illouz, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who has published a book on the way romance is made into a commodity, "not just by Valentine's Day, but by the way the media uses it to sell us things we don't need".
"She has an interesting argument that our notions of love have been shaped by capitalism," Prof Barusch says.
In her 1997 work, Consuming the romantic utopia: Love and the cultural contradictions of capitalism, Prof Illouz argues that romance has been "colonised by the market".
Drawing a link between romantic rituals and consumerism, Prof Illouz asks: to what extent are our most romantic moments determined by the portrayal of love in film and on television? Is a walk on a moonlit beach a moment of perfect romance or simply a simulation of the familiar ideal seen again and again on billboards and movie screens?
With her work largely involving American love in the 20th century, Prof Illouz studies how individual conceptions of love overlap with the world of clichés and images, the result of which is a "romantic utopia" built on images that unite amorous and economic activities in the rituals of dating, lovemaking, and marriage.
Take the prevalence of advertisements that connect beauty products, cars, even food to love and happiness.
Prof Illouz contends those romantic clichés, be they a meal consumed amid candlelight or a bunch of roses (red, of course), are an advertising and media construct, a message of consumption in which material goods equal happiness and are available to everyone.
Dunedin match-maker Jane Metcalfe reckons romance is alive and well. You just have to look hard to find it sometimes.
The 35-year-old, who founded Dunedin Dating in August 2006, believes most of the single people who attend her speed-dating nights have a romantic candle flickering "in the back of their minds".
"They come because they would like to meet someone. I think that it is a very biological thing; it's what we are all programmed to do.
"I'm at that very initial step. One thing I don't want people to do when they come to my events is to dream of romance, because it is never at speed-dating.
"It happens after the event. You do hear some wonderful stories and that's what it's all about."
Over the past two and a-half years, Ms Metcalfe has dealt with more than 1500 people, of whom 200 have got "loved-up".
Ms Metcalfe says Valentine's Day often makes single people feel more single, evidenced by the wealth of Internet blogs devoted to the topic.
"There is no-one to send them a little rose or make breakfast in bed, and they are not going to get a fluffy toy."
It's not that easy to meet someone, she contends. She should know: currently single, she set up a business "based around meeting men and I can't meet men. Because I'm the organiser, it's a conflict of interest".
"Society has had a change. Thirty or 40 years ago, in our parents' day, there were regular dances that were happening; we were more community-oriented . . . I think we've become more self-centred; there's not the same sense of community. There aren't the same social structures.
"My typical client would be a 47-year-old divorcee who has come out of a 20-year relationship; they have teenagers or young adults just leaving home; they are three years on from their divorce so it's time to move on and meet someone. But where do you go?
"When I started, I didn't know I was starting a business. I just wanted to meet men. I'd arrived back in New Zealand - I was a big traveller - got myself a house, a job and thought, `Right, I'll try to find myself a man. How do I find a man in 2006? I'll go on the Internet'.
"What amazed me was five out of seven men I communicated with on the Internet were not interested in meeting face to face. Maybe they were married; maybe they were too ugly for words . . .
"I don't know what the reasons were, but what I noticed was the two out of seven guys who I did meet down the pub - I probably had about 10 to 12 Internet dates - were just normal, likeable guys happy to meet face-to-face and have a beer.
I thought there have got to be more of these guys out there and I'd been waiting for someone to do speed-dating but they never did so I thought, `stuff it; I'll do it'."
Still, if all else fails, there is always the prospect of a good read. Want passion? Turn the page.
Canadian publisher Harlequin, a world leader in women's fiction, releases more than 120 titles a month in 29 languages.
And what titles: Desert Prince, Defiant Virgin is all about a (surprise, surprise) prince who "indulges in women on a mistress-only basis"; while The Spanish Billionaire's Pregnant Wife features "an aristocratic, proud and darkly handsome in an impossible, breathtaking way" banker's dalliances with an impoverished waitress.
Harlequin titles enjoyed a total of 230 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists in 2007.
More than 1300 authors have their names adorn the covers of the outfit's various imprints. Last year, Harlequin sold 131 million books worldwide and, according to the publisher, the Toronto-based company has shipped more than five billion books.
Fantasy has an offspring. Let's call it fiscal.
