Online dating has revolutionized social interaction and created an industry valued at over $1 billion. eHarmony reports that their first ten years of existence resulted in nearly 150,000 marriages. This has been achieved through an effective matchmaking service, memorable television commercials, and in some part by rejecting candidates who fall outside their parameters. The website reports that nearly 30% of rejection emails were sent to people who admitted they were married in the questionnaire.

The designers of eHarmony’s questionnaire want to protect their brand from people seeking intimacy outside monogamous relationships. It’s about as far from “Everlasting Love” as one can imagine. But this only discourages such activity through their site and forces individuals seriously seeking adultery to look elsewhere. Potential adulterers now look to AshleyMadison.com, which will “guarantee” your affair for $250.

Infidelity is one of the juiciest topics in media, resulting in damning headlines for Tiger Woods, Newt Gingrich, and scores of other celebrities in recent memory. Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman saw America’s burgeoning habit as a sign of entrepreneurial opportunity and has since built a profitable website with over 12 million registered users and $20 million annual profit in 2011.

Parent company Avid Life found controversy when attempting to mass market the website’s services. Fox network refuses to air Ashley’s Super Bowl commercial and the company is vilified by the vehement defenders of monogamy. Like the tobacco industry, Biderman’s company faces a branding as an enabling organization, profiting from others’ despair. Can a television commercial convince a married person to have an affair?

People leave marriages for many reasons. Who can say how many of eHarmony’s “rejects” might have been in abusive relationships and seeking truly caring partners? Progress typically goes hand in hand with social liberation in terms of personal relationships, including sexual liaisons. Adultery is difficult to defend as morally justifiable; sentencing people to an unhappy life locked in a dysfunctional arrangement seems equally reprehensible. Despite some righteous monogamist arguments, infidelity has yet to unravel the fabric of our country. And in downhearted situations Ashley Madison seems to offer an opportunity to restore hope, or at least desire.