Adultery Website CEO Releases (Yet Another) Offensive Ad, Is Definitely the Sketchiest Ever

2:39 pm, November 8th | by Amy Tennery

Over the weekend I was near-convinced I’d found the sketchiest CEO ever. A long-time connoisseur of Ryanair’s horrendous hijinks, I was only marginally surprised when a video emerged of CEO Michael O’Leary manhandling some of his bikini-clad employees for a charity calendar, whilst grinning like a Red Bull-fueled madman. This had to be it, the Holy Grail of gross bosses — and the accompanying photos of him hugging Ryanair stewardesses in their undies confirmed as much, I thought.

But, oh, I was wrong.

After releasing his initial “does it even need to be said”-level of horrible ads, Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman has topped himself.

For the blissfully unfamiliar, here’s some background on Biderman and what he does. Biderman is the married entrepreneur behind Ashley Madison, a site designed for married individuals looking to cheat on their spouses. He’s famously said that monogamy is “a failed experiment,” despite the fact that (as I mentioned before) he’s married. His site purportedly helps unhappy marrieds meet other unhappy marrieds.

And that brings us back to his ads. Biderman is notorious for them. The most famous is from way earlier this year — it’s a T.V. spot that was slashed from the Super Bowl, in which an initially distraught, cuckolded wife embraces the willful freedom that comes with realizing that her spouse is cheating on her. She’s sad — but also liberated! Now she leers at her coworkers, and thrills at the possibilities that her husband’s asshattery has afforded her. It’s the “no means yes” of digital adultery.

Now, I realize that getting persnickety over ads from an adultery website is kind of like criticizing the Fast and the Furious movies because they promote unsafe driving. But the latest set of ads from Biderman underscores his total hypocrisy.

The first one was released around Halloween and the second released today — we found both images via Jezebel. Both imply that finding a woman of a ‘physical ideal’ is justification for cheating on your wife. You can see the second one to the left, to give you an idea. (Just an FYI, Jezebel tracked down the woman in the so-called “scary” ad and she’s none too pleased with how her image is being used.)

The ads — the second one, in particular — completely invalidate Biderman’s core defense of his business: that adultery is healthy and good for a marriage (and both men and women), particularly after the fire dies down. Despite being cruel and mean, it also calls women out in particular. The woman in the ads is no longer considered “good enough.” So it’s time to cheat on her. And the fact that he’s releasing ad after ad in this vein is grating and tired.

Given the sheer volume of ads in the Ashley Madison canon, it’s impossible to say for sure whether another exists that puts men up to the same scrutiny. But, as far as I can tell, there’s no ad available that aims to shame a guy — no ad featuring a larger gentleman with a come hither look, whom we’re supposed to mock. It’s not monogamy that Biderman sees as a failure — it’s women.

But is he the grossest CEO yet? We’re learning not to hold our breath.

TAGS: adultery website ads | ashley madison ads | noel biderman | noel biderman ashley madison