AshleyMadison has offered to buy the naming rights for Detroit’s Belle Isle park for $10m.
The controversial adultery site sent the city an official letter of intent last Thursday to rename the 985 acre park AshleyMadison.com Island for 10 years.
The amusing publicity stunt has been met as exactly that by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s office, Reuters reporting that Orr proposed a $100m counter-offer in internal emails.
AshleyMadison’s CEO Noel Biderman said in a news release: “During the economic crisis, AshleyMadison.com was a haven for the people of Detroit.
“We experienced a large spike in sign-ups, with a growth that currently shows 4.5 percent of Detroit’s people are members of AshleyMadison.com.
“In fact, we’ve found that cross-border affairs are at a peak in the Detroit-Windsor corridor; so as a Canadian company it feels like the right fit for us to support our neighbors – and in some cases, affair partners – to the south.”
The site even took the time to mock up a proposed entrance sign:
AshleyMadison have previous for such publicity stunts, offering the same amount to rename Phoenix’s Sky Harbour Airport to the AshleyMadison.com International Airport.
They also offered to rename the New Meadowlands Stadium to, well you can probably guess.
The story has received differing responses from commenters on Fox Detroit, ranging from the appalled:
“Endorsing a service that breaks one of the ten commandments would just be another step in the moral decay of the city.”
To the more pragmatic:
“Tacky? Absolutely. But no one is actually going to be calling it “Ashleymadison.com Island,” and the city needs the money. I think it’s a no-brainer. It’s no worse than any other landmark being named after it’s corporate sponsor.”
The city has until 5pm Thursday, November 21st, to accept the offer.