Best Super Bowl Ad? The Adultery Commercial

Best Super Bowl Ad? The Adultery Commercial

Oh, did you miss that one? You undoubtedly did, unless you live in Texas. Extramarital dating site ashleymadison.com placed a $250,000 30-second commercial in the Lone Star state, says The Houston Chronicle.

Ashleymadison.com is a site for married folks to find other married individuals to date, have sex with, etc. Their tagline is "When divorce isn't an option." We know. Our first reaction was disbelief with a little bit of anger. But the interesting bit? The commercial, which aired during the most testosterone-injected televised event of the year, is clearly geared toward the unhappy, unfulfilled wife.

Mrs. Unhappy perks up when the commercials break up the monotony of the game, watches the cheating commercial, then looks over at her zombie couch potato. Maybe that marketing team is a pack of geniuses, after all. (Check out the commercial here.)

The dating site did pitch the spot as a national campaign, but both the NFL and NBC rejected it, while local Texas stations picked it up. Why Texas? Two reasons: An ashleymadison.com spokesperson says the company is targeting Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, which are the company's fastest growing markets (pre-commercial). Plus, as we know, times are tough, and $250,000 looks pretty enticing in an economic crisis.

We can't say whether it's wrong to promote infidelity, but the site did see more than 150,000 hits the day after the Super Bowl — from the Houston market alone. Looks like whatever they were selling, people are buying.