Canada Says No to Toronto-Based Adultery Dating Service
Ashley Madison Agency, the company that openly promotes having an extramarital affair and has created a dating service specifically for interested adulterers, is making a spot buy during the Super Bowl. Sadly for Ashley Madison, the spot will not air in the company's home country, Canada, because CTV has dubbed the commercial inappropriate. It will, however air in several U.S. spot markets.
CTV VP of Communication Scott Henderson said, "The Super Bowl attracts a broad audience composed of families, men and women, young and old. An advertisement for a website promoting adultery does not meet the standards for the quality brands associated with this premiere television property and major social event."
Ashley Madison Agency President Noel Biderman countered, saying, "Physical intimacy is no different than requiring oxygen to breathe or water to drink, If it's missing in your relationship, I don't care who you are, President of the United States or the Prince of England, you're going to step outside your relationship. That's the bottom line."
Biderman went on to express his anger over the decision, adding, "We're just really livid that it's not being seen in the country where the business was born and where it's focused. I think that absent a regulatory reason, CTV is offside here."
It's a bit of a moral dilemma, isn't it? Should a television impose its beliefs on it audience? Should it run the spot and let people decide for themselves? Does the station have an obligation to censor what might be deemed offensive? Does Ashley Madison have the right to promote its business even though many might find it, shall we say, less than family-friendly? Should we all just admit everyone has sex, wants to have sex and will have sex no matter what? Discuss.
Comments
That commercial should not only be banned from Super Bowl spot but entirely from TV’s. Basically they encouraging everyone to cheat.
Not only that, but they are saying it’s absolutely okay to do so. If physical intimacy is missing you talk about it that is called communication! You don’t go humping someone else. If there is no communication no intimacy the next step is separation. Cheating is never an answer or a solution to any problems.
That commercial should not only be banned from Super Bowl spot but entirely from TV’s. Basically they encouraging everyone to cheat.
Not only that, but they are saying it’s absolutely okay to do so. If physical intimacy is missing you talk about it that is called communication! You don’t go humping someone else. If there is no communication no intimacy the next step is separation. Cheating is never an answer or a solution to any problems.
Well, I might think that Budweiser ads encourage people to drink, and say that it's absolutely okay to do so, even though many people avoid their problems--and destroy their lives--with alcohol... but I don't think that anyone's going to ban Budweiser from advertising during the Super Bowl.
Adults can make their own choices--imposing moral standards on Super Bowl ads seems like a slippery slope.
Jesus. I thought the U.S. was supposed to be the morality police state?
It's CTV's air. Like it or not, it's their call as to what goes on it.
It's CTV's air. Like it or not, it's their call as to what goes on it.
It's CTV's air. Like it or not, it's their call as to what goes on it.
agree with Ted. Stations have the right to choose their content and programming- including ads.
Does anybody realize that there were children watching the ad? One of my kids was so confused about what the commercial was that she wanted to google it. Family programming people!!
To every married couple who are not having enough sex in marriage, get a divorce first before you start dating! It's not fair that the 3rd person will be blamed for adultery and breaking a marriage. And to all those who remain in marriage for the status of marriage but are unhappy sexually and then seek a third person to commit adultery, you should really be honest enough to get divorced first. Divorce is there to show how important sex is in a partnership. Whoever you marry should be the partner you are having sex with!
For some reason, this thread just landed in my inbox months after its last posting.
While CTV is responsible for its own air, I have something to say about the service being advertised. I was in a couple of miserable marriages. Until you are there you have no idea how awful it can be. Fact is that Ashley Madison is promoting something that is for some folks the only outlet to sanity. Whether it should be promoted on broadcast TV is an open question. I'll leave that up to the standards and practices folks. But parents need to think about what their kids watch and supervise it. Other than during children's programming or so-called family viewing hours should the broadcaster be held responsible for content that is neither obscene nor vulgar nor objectionable to the majority of viewers. Some folks have a problem with the ad. I understand that. Some of the people with problems are parents. They need to know what to say to their kids, not blame the broadcasters or the marketers when the kids are watching during adult oriented viewing hours. Perhaps they should think about the times of day that they let the kids watch TV.
Or maybe they should use a little wit. Noel Coward once said to a child who asked what the two doggies were doing in the street, "The doggie in front has just gone blind, and the doggie in back is pushing him all the way to St. Dunstan's."