Row after dating site ads pulled
Website promoting extra-marital affairs cries “censorship” after adverts pulled from the back of buses in Ile-de-France
A DATING website for people looking for extra-marital relationships has complained it is the subject of censorship after its adverts on buses and street billboards in Île-de-France were pulled following complaints.
Gleeden.com said in a statement that the ads - featuring a half-eaten apple with the tagline "the premier site for extra-marital encounters designed by women" - were withdrawn from buses in Yvelines, such as Poissy, Rambouillet, Saint-Germain, Chatou, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, and Versailles, as well as Sèvres in Hauts-de-Seine.
Ile-de-France: Gleeden crie à la «censure» après le retrait de publicités http://t.co/NWa5ov7fB6 pic.twitter.com/1ydPe5tq6V— 20 Minutes (@20Minutes) February 18, 2015
The bus company Keolis confirmed to AFP that it had decided to pull the adverts after receiving 500 complaints in a week. It said that it normally receives 900 complaints a year over advertising on its buses.
The UMP mayor of Rambouillet, Marc Robert, wrote to another bus company, Transdev, demanding that the adverts be removed after being alerted to them by members of the public.
“As a civil registration officer, I believe that this advertising is clearly an incentive to non-compliance of the Civil Code which provides that he spouses owe each other respect, fidelity, succour and assistance,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, authorities in Versaille said that “These adverts caused problems in one part of the population, especially for the most devout Catholics attached to family values."
At Rambouillet, the UMP mayor Marc Robert, who took the lead: alerted by residents, he sent a letter to Transdev "to inform him of (her) surprise and ask him to take action."
"As a civil registration officer, I believe that this advertising is clearly an incentive to non-compliance of the Civil Code which provides that he spouses owe each other respect, fidelity, succour and assistance "," a- he explained.
A spokesperson for the website said: "We don't understand the exaggerated reaction, especially since we have been advertising for five years,” adding that infidelity has not been illegal in France since 1975.
Also read: Half of French men have had affair
Gleeden.com / screengrab
