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Terrible Website Promoting Affairs Puts Out Another Terrible Ad
By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 9, 2011
Modified Nov 9, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Nov 9, 2011
Modified Nov 9, 2011
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Guess when your business plan is to urge, and help, married people to cheat on their spouses, your dark side runs pretty deep. The man behind Ashley Madison (essentially an adultery website), recently got flack for a print ad the company put out which declares overweight women are not desirable (so, you know, try out the thinner women they have to offer). Breezing right through the criticism, they have now put out another ad, declaring overweight women are "scary."
The ads, seen above, ran in New York Metro newspaper, and afterwards, the plus-size model (who runs her own website) wrote a piece for Jezebel, explaining that she didn't give the company permission to use the photo. She wrote, "I am mortified that my image and likeness would be used as advertisement for two things I am so vehemently against: namely cheating and, to an even greater extent, body shaming."
CEO of Ashley Madison, Noel Biderman (who has a very thin 126 followers on Twitter—say hi), has been defending his ads, even saying they are "the best thing that could've happened to this woman... if she can get great publicity from this, all the power to her." Even the parent company, Avid, seems to be defending the ads, saying, "Great advertising is often controversial but one thing we are not at Avid is in any way discriminatory, in fact we have an entire website dedicated to big and beautiful women."
Tagged
adultery
advertising
Ashley Madison
body shaming
noel biderman
weight
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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