The Super Bowl is known for its funny, smart, and even racy commercials. But there's one steamy spot viewers won't be seeing next month: a "discreet" dating service's lingerie-clad add encouraging partners to cheat.
The commercial is for AshleyMadison.com, which calls itself "the world's premiere discreet dating service." Translation: it's a dating service for married people. "Life is short. Have an affair," the site says. It even offers an "affair guarantee."
In order to raise its profile, the company produced a 30-second commercial for next month's Super Bowl. But Fox, which will air this year's game, banned it. SportsGrid describes the ad:
The ad features adult film star Savanna Sampson, who walks into a corporate boardroom and announces that her executive husband has been cheating on her. Cue a montage of everybody hooking up with everybody (yes, there’s even dude-on-mascot smooching). The ad ends with her in a bra, and the tag line “Isn’t it time for AshleyMadison.com?”
“Standards & Practices has deemed the Ashley Madison spot is not acceptable to air on FOX," the website said in a press release.
As SportsGrid suggests, the rejection might not be as much about the content but the idea -- although depicting people having sex in a car is extreme. Now, the site just has to figure out how to recoup the expenses of producing a failed Super Bowl commercial
It's good to know that there are still standards when it comes to network TV.
UPDATE:
According to the Huffington Post this is the second year in a row that Ashley Madison has had a Super Bowl ad rejected.
