AshleyMadison.com has been advertising on TV??? A site devoted to helping married folks have extramarital affairs? Eeee-yick. Even more tasteless than the premise of the site. Thank goodness ESPN has had the good sense to yank the ads. Note the article says that ESPN is owned by Disney, the “family” business.
Extramarital Affair Ad Gets Axed ESPN Says It Has Asked Affiliates to Pull an Ad for a Cheaters’ Matchmaking Service
By ALICE GOMSTYN and CLOE SHASHA
Aug. 4, 2008 —
ESPN is yanking a commercial for an infidelity matchmaking service.
Amy Phillips, a spokeswoman for ESPN—which is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News—said that the sports channel has asked its local affiliates to stop running an ad for AshleyMadison.com, a Web site that connects would-be cheaters with potential mates.
Phillips would not say why the channel decided to pull the ad.
Noel Biderman, the president of AshleyMadison.com, who learned of ESPN’s decision from an ABCNews.com reporter, said he felt that “a double standard” had been applied to his company with respect to advertising.
He said ESPN is “inundated” with advertisements for alcohol, a product “responsible for health issues and ultimately death.”
“Somehow I’m immoral and everything else is OK,” he said.
AshleyMadison.com boasts a membership of more than 2.2 million. For $49, members can create profiles and send e-mails and instant messages to each other. A slogan on the company’s homepage reads “Life is Short. Have an Affair.”
The 35-second commercial shows an unhappy-looking man lying in bed alongside a snoring woman. As he gets up and leaves the bedroom, a narrator’s voice declares, “Most of us can recover from a one-night stand with the wrong woman, but not when it’s every night for the rest of our lives. Isn’t it time for AshleyMadison.com?”
Biderman said that his company, which was based in Toronto, was spending more than $1 million this summer to run the ad on several television channels, including CNN, MSNBC, Fox, Fox News Channel and Spike.
But some of the networks on Friday distanced themselves from the ad.
A spokesman for Spike said he wasn’t sure if the network had ever run an ad for AshleyMadison.com but added that “if it did run, it would never run again.” Representatives for both the Fox network and Fox News also said that the channels would never air the ad.
Robert Marich, the business editor at the trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable, said that just because a national network has disavowed an ad, it doesn’t mean its local affiliates or cable providers that carry their programs have done the same.
Marich said that both national television companies and local television stations each sell on-air advertising time. Local stations and cable providers are often run by owners independent of the national networks, he said. While national television companies have control over the commercials they run, he said, they don’t impose restrictions on or review the ads that their local stations air.
“In general, [local] TV stations set their own policies for what’s an acceptable ad or not because they’re responsible for what they put on their air,” he said.
Biderman said that the commercial represented the company’s third television campaign. Previous Ashley Madison commercials—which ran between 2003 and 2007—had usually aired after 11 p.m. at night and on programs with “desensitized” audiences such as the “Jerry Springer Show” and “Cheaters,” a reality show about infidelity. It has also been advertised on Sirius satellite radio.
The new television campaign, he said, was designed to reach more people and would be aired during the day in some markets.
Unlike its last commercial, which showed a man and woman rolling around in bed, the new ad is “a little edgy” and “a lot more humorous,” Biderman said.
“We really wanted something that could sit in a sports property, that could sit in a news property,” he said.
The ad has run on ESPN’s “Sports Center” program and Biderman said there were also plans for it to run during CNN’s “Larry King Live” and “Anderson Cooper 360.”
CNN did not return calls for comment Friday.
While the ad is sure to raise the ire of conservative and family values groups, media watchers disagree about the impact that the commercial may have on consumers and their attitudes toward infidelity.
Bob Garfield, an advertising critic for the magazine Advertising Age, said that a profusion of such ads could “normalize what was previously considered deviant behavior.”
“A 30-second spot for human trafficking is probably just around the corner,” he said.
But Robert Thompson, the director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, said that when it comes to perceptions of infidelity, the Ashley Madison ad is “a drop in the bucket.”
“I think that idea is being normalized by our neighbors, what we hear other people doing, its depiction in literature, movies, everything else,” he said. “This little television ad saying that people are in infidelity relationships is a tiny little piece.”
John Chapin, an associate professor of communications at Penn State University, said that the commercial is a reflection of infidelity in society today—albeit a distorted one.
“It’s us but a little bit more exciting, a little bit more promiscuous, a little bit more interesting than what we really are,” he said. “The commercial wouldn’t exist if the culture wasn’t there, but it’s just punched up a notch.”
Biderman said he did not believe the company’s ads would prompt someone to cheat on his or her significant other.
“I maintain that in a 30-second TV spot, I’m not convincing anyone to engage in infidelity,” he said. “I don’t have that power of persuasion.”
Eeeyuck, is the following creepy or what? I’ve written about Ashley Madison before, and about the only value I can see of a bottom dragging site like this is that it stands a chance of the married folks (mostly men) wanting to fool around going here rather than the legit sites for singles. And if you doubt the numbers of men on these sites, take a look at this piece I wrote.
Adultery gets a woman’s touch this Valentine’s Day...
Infidelity Dating Site AshleyMadison.com Names Spokeswoman
TORONTO, Feb. 7 /CNW/ - Avid Dating Life Inc., operators of
http://www.AshleyMadison.com, the world’s largest dating service of its kind,
servicing over 1.8 million registered members in a social networking community
catering to like-minded adults in committed relationships, today announced
Sarah Symonds as their new spokesperson and relationship expert. Notorious
“other woman” and “affair expert” Symonds’ first duty as spokeswoman for the
infidelity dating site AshleyMadison.com, is to invite attached but lovelorn
Canadians to celebrate Valentine’s Day by re-kindling their intimacies with
other attached adults in search of romance.
Symonds shot to fame last year with the release of her book Having an
Affair: A Handbook for the Other Woman, which details her own highly
publicized indiscretions, including an affair with best-selling author and
politician Jeffrey Archer. Symonds book has become the gold-standard manifesto
on how to be a “successful” mistress.
“Sarah’s mix of personal experience and practical advice for all those
involved in or considering forbidden love affairs make her the perfect choice
to be the voice of Ashley Madison,” said Noel Biderman, Avid Dating Life Inc.
President and Chief Operating Officer. “Our site provides a safe and
non-judgemental avenue for the attached-but-lovelorn to revitalize their
intimacies. Sarah’s honest and powerful views on adultery will bring insight
and understanding not only to our subscribers, but to society in general. We
are excited to have the Queen of Infidelity join the King of Infidelity and
company Founder, Darren Morgenstern, in representing our global brand.”
The announcement of Symonds’ union with Ashley Madison comes just in time
for Valentine’s Day. Now, husbands, wives and partners across the country who
are craving romance and emotional connectivity, or just hankering for some
extra-curricular excitement, are invited to enjoy Ashley Madison’s special
brand of “dating.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining the Ashley Madison team and my Valentine’s
gift to Canada is to help break the shell of hypocrisy that surrounds the
whole topic of adultery,” said Symonds. “People need to wake up and realize
that adultery has been going on for as long as the institution of marriage has
been around, and that services like Ashley Madison did not create the behavior
of infidelity. Instead, http://www.AshleyMadison.com provides a safe and successful
platform for those individuals who have decided to proceed down this path. The
work place and singles dating services are avenues fraught with problems that
I would strongly recommend avoiding in favor of AshleyMadison.com.”
Recently expanding its services to the UK, Ashley Madison has enjoyed
great success in North America. They have appeared as pundits and guests on
major news outlets such as CNN, FOX News, Montel Williams, 20/20, CBS Sunday
Morning, Dr. Phil, The NY Post and TMZ.com. The company has launched a series
of provocative TV commercials entitled “This Couple is Married - But Not To
Each Other” and have embarked on a billboard advertising campaign bearing the
company’s slogan, “Life is Short ... Have an Affair.”
Since its inception on February 14, 2002, the Ashley Madison Agency
Limited has been providing an online service helping attached people who are
seeking a romantic relationship connect safely and anonymously with other
like-minded adults.
I watched the first episode of Millionaire Matchmaker and I have to say that even though I have set the Tivo to tape the whole series, I dunno if I am going to be able to stomach watching. The Yick Factor was VERY high.
I sorta liked last year’s Confessions of a Matchmaker. Patti Novak in Buffalo worked with average folks and did what she could to pair them up. I even sat next to Patti this last fall at a conference. She’s “just plain folks” herself. Doesn’t look like A&E has continued the show for another season. Maybe later.
But Millionaire Matchmaker—oooeee! These are not just plain folks at all.
Patti Stanger started The Millionaire’s Club in 2000. From the website: Patti realized that busy, upscale men simply didn’t have the time to go looking for a relationship, weren’t meeting the kind of women that they dreamed about, or were looking for a certain “type” that they couldn’t currently find. These men needed a service where they could be introduced to exceptionally beautiful women in a relaxing, discreet and confidential manner.
The Millionaire Club is based in Los Angeles, and it shows. Money money money— in exchange for looks looks looks. The guys? Puhleeze! On the first show, one of them made his money selling sex toys online, and the other was in his mid 40’s and wanted to date women in their 20’s. Even Patti thought the cradle robber was seriously deluded and told him so. Mr. Sex Toy had to be told to hide the sex toys in his office, but couldn’t be convinced to move the stripping pole there too.
Now, the Millionaire Club staff got together a bevy of gorgeous women for these two to look over—and amazingly enough, none of the ladies left when they found out about the source of Mr. Sex Toy’s money. They were all coiffed and made up to the 9’s, in teensy dresses that they hung out over on all edges, and were teetering around in high heels.
Both guys pick one for a date, both guys wanted to see the ladies again, and both ladies dropped out. Glad to see that the girls at lease had some taste. Mr. Sex Toy and date (Harvard educated, can you believe?) had a nice dinner in a restaurant, then HE TAKES HER BACK TO HIS PLACE AND DOES A DANCE ON THE POLE FOR HER. At least he kept his clothes on. Minus for her that it took her a couple of more dates to say “No thanks.”
Mr. Cradle Robber took his date out on what looked like a huge yacht with its own crew. Even though she said she’s see him again, she didn’t return his calls to set up the date. Bully for her.
I’d like to know what y’all think of these millionaire matching sites. Do they creep you out like they do me?
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