Its ok to cheat as long as you don't get caught!

Yeah right.

Personal opinion: its never ok to cheat on your significant other, or have an affair or anything of the sort. Those kinda of things are what breaks hearts all over the place and sends people into a spiraling void of depression and hate. Its a stupid way of dealing with relationship problems. If you're not happy in your relationship, talk to the other person and deal with it. If after that it doesn't work out then leave. Its as simple as that.

That being said, some brands have opted to pique consumer interest by adding just a little spice into their ads. They try to give their ads an edge by introducing the idea of cheating or having an affair, something seen as taboo in society. The question: is it done in just good humor or is it promoting the acceptance of infidelity?

Lets just start with Ashley Madison and get it out of the way.

ashleymadison.com is someone's fantastic idea of a dating site - except targeted at committed individuals looking to have an affair with other comitted people. Basically its your go to site if you ever feel the need to cheat on your significant other but are too lazy to wait for a drunken opprotunity at a bar. You know you're going to do it anyways, and this site just makes it easier. And they're not hiding what they're about either. Its all over their ads. Their branding basically boasts that if you dont like being with your current partner, go have an affair. Literally:

And you know what, their adversiting is spot on for what their brand is about. Its all about cheating, so why wouldn't be all over their advertising. They're targetting a specific market and they're selling their brand effectively.

Who knew you could market the smell of coffee and cigarettes and ink and package it as an alibi for your cheating?

Apparently this entire fragrance line is targetted towards men who need an excuse out of why they were late or where they were. If you cheated, no worries, spray some "burnt rubber and steel" on yourself and she won't even doubt your story for a second!

I will give this one an ok as well, because the product is marketed specifically for the act of cheating. So saucy ads like these will surely boost your brand.

Now on to the ones that make no sense to me.

Sex sells. I get that. But what do pretzels have anything to do with using this type of provocative advertising? Lose your old one for a new thin and stacked one? Really? The advertisers know full well what kind of message they were sending with this one. I'm sure someone thought it was a clever idea at the production stage because of the actual product, but I think it was in poor taste. Then again, these fabulous people also brought us these gems:

 



I rest my case with this one.

Anyways, my point is that if your product is specifically targetted towards a market that cheats and has affairs, using infidelity in your marketing is perfectly appropriate. That is your brand and that is what you're trying to show the masses. If you're advertising for soap and your tagline is basically screaming "Take a hot bath with a sexy girl thats not your wife", I think you're trying too hard to sell something thats completely irrelevant to your branding strategy. Yeah, its a clever play on words and it catches attention and its provocative, but how much is it going to sell in the general population of fairly good natured consumers?