First, a little background:
AshleyMadison.com is a website geared toward facilitating affairs and rendezvous between married-or-similarly-involved individuals. That is what this marketing is centered around.
That being said…
No? Okay, how about this one:
Jezebel, as peculiar as they are, had the following to say about this:
[The ad,] which appeared in the New York Metro, features a scantily-clad overweight woman with the caption, “Did your wife scare you last night?” The message: your wife, though she’s clearly gone to some effort to look sexy and seduce you, is too fat. Solution: adultery.
The site also found the model who serves as the “scary” example (she runs a BBW fetish website), and she had the following to say:
Years ago, before my modeling career began in earnest, a photographer friend of mine arranged an informal photo session. I was under the impression at the time that people purchasing these photos from the photographer would be doing so for their own personal use. I had no idea that the photographer would endeavor to sell the photos to corporations and/or stock photo companies, who would then go on, repeatedly, to use them in rude and mocking ways.
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.
I find the very idea that there exists a business based solely around the facilitation of infidelity appalling. The fact that they are now suggesting that a person’s partner not fitting their ideal body size/shape, entitles that person to ‘shop around’ is disgusting.
There is an enormous problem in this world in regards to female body shaming, and not solely in regard to fat women, but all women. A size 2 woman who sees this ad sees the message: “If I don’t stay small, he will cheat”. A size 12 woman might see this ad and think “if I don’t lose 30lbs, he will cheat”. A size 32 woman could see this ad, and feel “I will never find love”. It’s horrific. Not all women are necessarily insecure, but it’s no secret that body insecurity is endemic, regardless of size. This kind of message is extremely damaging to self worth. Eating disorders may have lost their place in the media spotlight, but continue to effect people of all ages, especially teens. This sort of behavior can easily be triggered from the careless cruelty of advertisements like the one in question.
[…]
It’s bad enough that a business exists that encourages and profits from cheaters, but, worse still, that they have the gall to blame a woman’s body on the act, rather than the man who is incapable of commitment and loyalty. It exists in the same school of thought in which a rapist blames a woman’s outfit for his crime.
I’m bothered by a lot of this, personally. It’s not necessarily about preferences, because you obviously preferred that person if you took it so far as to marry them. I’m going to avoid my marriage soapbox, but I am going to say…actually, no, I’m not.
“Life is short. Have an affair.”
Dude. I can’t. I need tea before I bother with this.
#teambgg2wl, what do you think? Does this bother you in any way, and if so, how?