Adultery app Ashley Madison says it’s rebranding

Infamous dating platform Ashley Madison just announced a massive global rebrand, and the boldness of its new take on PR is worth talking about.

Ashley Madison is officially ditching the “affairs” label and repositioning itself as a privacy-focused destination for “discreet dating.” But if you’ve followed the company’s journey, you have the right to be a little skeptical.

Ashley Madison has a history involving a major data breach and fake profiles.

In 2015, a catastrophic data breach exposed the information of millions of users and exposed high-profile members, including Josh Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting (Yeah). The incident was also linked to at least two suicides at the time.

To make things easier, its parent company, Avid Life Media, changed its name to Ruby Corp. in 2016, and the site decided to (temporarily) abandon its slogan: “Life is short. Have an affair.” And just a week before its new TV ads hit the market, the company faced an investigation and lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission over fake profiles posing as real women. (Ashley Madison moved in months later.)

The new brand image moves away from infidelity and is based on “ethical discretion”.

Fast forward to today. Ashley Madison has yet another new slogan: “Where Desire Meets Discretion.”

According to the brand’s PR team, the site now focuses on “ethical discretion” for singles, separated people, and the ethical non-monogamous community. Paul Keable, director of strategy, tells us that this change was influenced by last year’s sign-ups: apparently 57% of new members identified as single.

“Our priority for discretion is to recognize and empower daters to take control of their profile and help create better connections,” Keable told Mashable in an email. “We will now market Ashley Madison as a dating platform for ethical discretion; whether single, separated, divorced or non-monogamous.”

Dr. Tammy Nelson, a sex and relationship therapist partner with the brand, agrees that dating app fatigue and oversharing have pushed users toward platforms that prioritize anonymity and data protection. “Discretion and privacy became the goal of dating,” says Dr. Nelson. “In a recent survey of Ashley Madison members, 61 percent of respondents said the reason they chose Ashley Madison in looking for relationships was because they wanted a high level of discretion.”

The platform uses impressive, albeit shady, technology to keep users hidden.

To their credit, Ashley Madison’s list of features is pretty impressive if you’re trying to stay off the grid (but, again, it was originally designed to help you cheat):

• Selective identity: Users are encouraged to use a pseudonym and you can blur or hide your photos. The site asks you to register with a nickname rather than your legal name. Links to social media are also not allowed. According to Keable, the app strictly prohibits social media handles or phone numbers in profiles to prevent cross-platform identification.

• Private keys: Members can create a hidden photo album and grant (or revoke) access via a “private key” at any time.

• Stealth mode (iOS only): Apple users can customize the app icon and notification appearance on their phone (fishy, ​​if you ask me).

• Screenshot Blockers: The platform has built-in screenshot blockers, so other members cannot take screenshots of anything in the app. If they attempt to do so, they will simply get a black screenshot. While it doesn’t send an alarm or anything to the person whose image was captured, Keable says users reported for sharing screenshots externally could face a permanent ban.

“The most important differentiator is our community itself,” says Keable. “Consumer apps rely on ‘social discovery,’ using your contacts and ‘friends of friends’ to help you find people you know,” he adds. “Ashley Madison works on the opposite principle.”

Ironically, the real cheaters on Reddit aren’t happy.

Users on the r/adultery subreddit have already noticed the change in real time. The platform quietly ditched explicit labels like “Attached seeking Attached” and replaced them with the standard “Men seeking Women” and a generalized “non-monogamy” tag.

Ashley Madison really tries, Really It’s hard to convince us that the fundamental purpose of the site has evolved beyond facilitating infidelity. I was totally ready to call BS on this whole pivot, but ironically, the real cheaters aren’t thrilled about the rebranding. On Reddit, users are actively complaining that the influx of singles is ruining the site’s original purpose, making it harder to find other married people looking to move away. One user wrote: “This really ruined the site for me. I’m only interested in women who are having affairs… I wish I could get a refund on my credits.”

So you can call it “ethical discretion” or a publicity stunt. But what if adulterers flee because the site is too full of singles looking for intimacy? Well, maybe rebranding actually works.