by Tenebris

Created on: July 31, 2009

"Life is short. Have an affair."
- Ashley Madison's slogan

Despite slow sales that only barely sold out Super Bowl televisionadspace - and that during the week of the Super Bowl itself - the Ashley Madison commercial was not among them. Ashley Madison is an on-line dating company that specialises in partnering people in committed relationships who are seeking to have an affair, including singles who are interested in having a relationship inherently without strings. Having an affair is not yet against the law, nor is helping and abetting such an affair: yet apparently we still must not acknowledge that fact on non-fictional national television, nor dare national television profit from it (directly).

Never mind the minor point that, during the opening scenes of a full-fledged depression, Ashley Madison appears to be one of the few companies easily able to absorb the astronomical cost of Superbowl commercial time and even a Superbowl program full-page ad. Even before the rejection hit the airwaves, Ashley Madison already had over 3.2 million members, and was signing up new members at the rate of one every 20 seconds. In Texas alone, a state of 24 million people where the commercial did eventually sneak onto local television, Ashley Madison counts 200,000 members: at a membership cost of $249 each. Obviously the business is thriving - as is its counterpart and complement, Alibi Network - which suggests in turn that obviously a need is being met.

Equally obviously, the word of mouth, free mass media, and blogosphere publicity garnered by the commercial's having been rejected on nationwide television is much more valuable as airing the commercial would have been. Rejecting this commercial may have actually raised the profile of a previously whispered service.

Sexuality - and particularly forbidden sexuality - has always been a controversial subject in advertising. Thousands of viewers wrote in, highly upset, when the Taster's Choice series of mini soap opera television commercials ended one of its spots with the couple having a romantic evening and began the next one with the couple at breakfast. Yet there is no similar controversy in advertising the alcohol which everyone knows lowers inhibitions against the forbidden actions. Like perfume, tobacco, cars, and other lifestyle products, alcohol is never marketed as itself. Instead, what is shown on television is all the associated parties and happiness and good friends, all of it safe: so long as nothing more than innuendo ever tiptoes into the room - and even that innuendo must not escape the strict confines of acceptable public interaction among young people.

Whatever the monetary cost, whatever the background truth, the rejection of the Ashley Madison's commercial does allow us to retain our determined whitewashed image of our own society for just a little longer. Who can put a price on that?

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