Life is short, have an affair, do drugs, kill someone, punch your Mother-in-law, ring someone's doorbell and then run away, eat pork, do yoga

I seem to recall seeing an advertisement a few years ago on television in which a man and a woman dressed in business attire emerge from a bathroom stall, slightly disheveled after having a "casual encounter." I hope the stall didn't smell like someone else's shit, that might ruin the mood. The advertisement was for Ashley Madison, a company that was formed in Toronto in 2001 that specializes in connecting married people to have affairs. I was not so much shocked that such a business existed as I was shocked that a television network would air an Ashley Madison ad in the middle of the afternoon. It seemed to be in bad taste.

Ashley Madison had a commercial aired during the Super Bowl this past Sunday. Arguably one of the most-watched programs on television (97.4 million US viewers and 3.6 million Canadian viewers watched on Sunday), the Super Bowl is not simply watched by that King of Queens guy look-alikes, it is watched by people of both sexes and a variety of ages. That being said, families could be sitting in front of their wall-mounted plasma screen televisions (paid for on a Best Buy credit card... if you have not signed up for your Best Buy credit card yet, you have no idea what you're missing... Best Buy serves all your electronic and home entertainment needs... the Best Buy credit card offers 0% interest for 12 months on your first purchase, so you cannot lose! Just don't read the fine print about the hidden Debt Cancellation program...) and suddenly the Ashley Madison commercial comes on. A lovely message for the kids.

The commercial ended up airing only in Texas after the majority of NBC affiliates across the country pulled the plug on it. In Canada, CTV rejected the ad from the start. CTV stated that they did not want an ad that "promotes adultery" to run alongside the "quality brands" that have purchased advertising time. Ashley Madison president Noel Biderman believes the network is hypocritical, as it airs ads for alcohol products, which he claims to be more harmful than adultery. That being said, give the ad a quick viewing and decide for yourself:



The argument purported is that adultery is okay in this case because her husband is an ass. How about this: get a fucking divorce. Or at least a separation. Or don't marry a fuckhead in the first place. Biderman claims that "If [physical intimacy] is 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." Yes. That's lovely. Ashley Madison really is more of a charity. They certainly do not let people who are treated well by their spouse and simply want an affair to pay them for their services. I hope that the $249 it costs to use the website is tax-deductible. Perhaps Ashley Madison will launch a campaign in Africa since it is such a noble charity. Maybe Bono could write a jingle for them.

Ashley Madison: ruining families since 2001.