Risqué Business

Ashley Madison is in the business of extramarital affairs, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Yonge and Eglinton–based “dating” agency, which caters to marrieds looking for fun on the side, opted to weigh in on the Eliot Spitzer hookergate scandal. They are, after all, experts when it comes to cheating discreetly. And do-gooders, too: “Ashley Madison can save a marriage,” insists CEO Noel Biderman, who, just two days after New York’s former governor was outed as “Client Nine,” took out a page in the New York Post reminding Spitzer that he should have come to Ashley Madison. The ad was simple (mimicking a standard e-mail subject line: “We hate to say we told you so…”), smart and, most importantly, it worked. Hits on Ashleymadison.com surged, while registration in the New York area went up by 50 per cent. Biderman even appeared on Larry King Live as part of a post-Spitzer panel on secret sex.

So do aggressive ads stateside mean Torontonians will be left to cheat the old-fashioned way, with secretaries and personal trainers? Not likely. “We have a deep, loyal user base in the GTA,” Biderman says, estimating nearly half of the agency’s 700,000 Canadian members reside here. Who knew we were such accomplished adulterers?—Liam Casey