Site for Cheating Spouses Denied Ad in Super Bowl Program

If you're married and you've never visited AshleyMadison.com, pat yourself on the back, you very well could be a happily married person.

But if you do know of the site, you're either unhappily married or you just spend a ton of time on the Internet. The Web site is a matchmaker for married people looking to get it on outside their restricted ring. Their home page boasts that over three million unhappily married people have joined and are enjoying the occasional skeez-fest.

Rejected Super Bowl Ads

AshleyMadison.com, a Web site for married people looking for a tryst, wanted to run an ad in the official Super Bowl program, but was rejected. Click through for rejected Super Bowl ads through the years.

AshleyMadison.com

Airborne, Super Bowl XXXIX (2005)
Mickey Rooney's rear end is exposed. Fox Broadcasting rejected the commercial. (Watch Video)

Airborne

Go Daddy, Super Bowl XLII (2008)
Supermodels emerge from cars with their beavers. Danica Patrick doesn't play along. Fox rejected the commercial. (Watch Video)

Godaddy.com

Bud Light, Super Bowl XXXIX (2005)
We learn what caused Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction a year later. Budweiser got cold feet about running it. (Watch Video)

Anheuser-Busch

Go Daddy, Super Bowl XXXIX (2005)
"Nipplegate" takes another shot in Go Daddy's campaign. After running a commercial once, Fox Broadcasting didn't run a second ad as planned (Watch Extended Video)

Godaddy.com

Snickers, Super Bowl XLI (2007)
Two guys inadvertently kiss. The commercial ran during the game, but was yanked from rotation after gay and lesbian groups voiced objections. (Watch Video)

Mars, Incorporated

Bud Light, Super Bowl XLI (2007)
A boyfriend apologizes for selling sex tape to stores with the help of Apology-Bot 3000. CBS rejected the commercial. (Watch Video)

Anheuser-Busch

Lincoln, Super Bowl XXXIX (2005)
A clergyman lusts for a Lincoln. Ford pulled the commercial prior to the Super Bowl.

Ford

Ashley Madison, Super Bowl XLIII (2009)
An ad for confidential hook-ups is rejected for the Super Bowl program.

AshleyMadison.com

Why am I telling you all this on a sports site? Well, AshleyMadison.com wanted to advertise in the Super Bowl program, even going so far as to sign a six-figure deal with PSP Sports, the company that puts out many sports programs.

After finding out exactly what the Web site was about, AshleyMadison.com was told they weren't going to be allowed to advertise. Bummer.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said that no one in the league office actually ever saw the ad. "After realizing what the site was, the sales rep called back and told the company there was a mistake and that his company could not sell an ad to the site."

I don't blame the NFL for not wanting to advertise cheating in a marriage. It is their call, they denied it, fine. What I don't understand is the CEO of AshleyMadison.com comparing it to an alcohol ad.

"I find the rejection to be ridiculous given that a huge percentage of the NFL's marketing content is for products like alcohol, which they sell in their stadiums, promote on their air and clearly have in the magazine," Biderman said. "That's a product that literally kills tens of thousands of people each year. So if the NFL is worried about legislating behavior and regulating what their audience should be exposed to then it should start with a ban on all alcohol advertising and products being sold, not AshleyMadison.com."

I had a beer yesterday and didn't kill anyone. I actually didn't come close to it. If you are advertising for beer, there are people that can go out and enjoy it responsibly. If you are visiting a Web site for dating amongst married couples, responsibility probably passed you about three exits ago.

I guess the above picture would have spiced up the program, though. If AshleyMadison.com is looking to make an impact, I think they picked slogan to go with, in "Who are you doing after the game?" How many guys in the stands would be picking her?