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Swinger Site Makes Play For Local TV Time

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 20, 2008

"Life is short. Have an Affair" is the slogan for an online dating service for cheating spouses that claims it will be running TV commercials in Tampa by January.

Noel Biderman, chief executive of the controversial Ashley Madison Agency, says his Canadian-based company has bought time on local TV and radio stations to reach the swingers in Florida who are looking to hook up.

But in a telephone interview Wednesday, Biderman could not say which TV stations in the Tampa-St. Petersburg TV market will air the company's commercial, and the Tribune has not been able to find any takers, either.

"Times are hard, but they are not that hard" says Pete Nikiel, spokesman for WTSP, Channel 10.

"We don't have any record of this and it's not something we would be interested in," says Rich Pegram, general manager at WFTS, Channel 28.

"The company may have bought the time somewhere but that doesn't mean the commercial will be aired," says Ken Lucas, general manager of WMOR, Channel 32. "Like every station in the market, we would review the content and if it didn't meet our standards, it wouldn't air."

WMOR-TV airs the syndicated "Cheaters" series, which Lucas says exposes, instead of encouraging, cheating spouses.

But Ashley Madison doesn't have to buy time to get exposure. A portion of the commercial already aired this week on a WTSP "10 Connects" newscast about the company's plans to buy commercial time here.

The company, which makes a profit by charging a subscription fee, has a history of generating media attention.

In July, a provocative billboard urging infidelity went up at Times Square in New York City. Owners of a nearby building threatened to burn it down. Newspapers and TV stations reported on complaints from outraged citizens. It came down in three days, but not before the brand and the Web site were all over the news.

The company also got media coverage when it announced plans to buy an advertisement in the official program of the Super Bowl (to be played in Tampa in February) and more attention when the NFL rejected the advertisement.

In Boston this month, the company placed some radio commercials and then announced TV commercials were going to be aired. Local TV stations rejected them, but not before newspaper and TV reports and condemnation from the Roman Catholic bishops of Massachusetts.

And here I am writing about it and probably sending more people to the Web site.

Moral outrage fuels a lot of the coverage, but Biderman says infidelity has been around longer than his dating service. "It's called the human condition," he said. "It's in our DNA. We're not meant to be monogamous.

"Our commercials are humorous and not offensive and they would air after 10 p.m. at night," he added.

VIDBITS: Daytime talk show host Maury Povich welcomes fellow daytime talker Steve Wilkos to "Maury" at 4 p.m. today (WTTA, Channel 38) to scare some wayward teenage girls whose lives are filled with sex and violence. The girls get life lessons from hardened female inmates at a New Jersey jail.

•Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) from the Fox show "House" was ranked among America's most loved and most disliked TV doctors in a recent survey by the American Board of Medical Specialties.

Most liked his medical skills. Others were turned off by bedside manner and poor communication skills. Coming in second as a favorite on a list of 13 fictional TV docs was Marcus Welby. Hawkeye Pierce, of "M*A*S*H," was third, followed by John Carter, of "ER."

Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.

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