Ashley Madison agency, which revels in the motto, "Life is short. Have an affair," is booming as its membership has soared from one million to 3.6 million in just 12 months.

Noel Biderman, the company’s founder and chief executive said that many couples who would otherwise have divorced were seeking affairs at the moment because of the cost of hiring lawyers and the difficulty of selling the marital home.

The company has recently launched a new promotional campaign, targeting potential adulterers with TV ads placed on peak-viewing daytime slots.

He hopes his business will flourish even more with the launch of a service allowing members to access the site from their mobile phones.

"We’re not just recession-proof, we’re booming," the Telegraph quoted Biderman, 37, a happily married father-of-two who set up the business in his home city of Toronto in 2001.

The advertisement features an attractive woman enduring a dreadful dinner date with a boorish man.

"Have you ever found yourself on a really bad blind date?" asks the voice-over. "Now imagine that date lasting the rest of your life."

Although it is free to register with Ashley Madison, but members pay with purchased credits to send messages to other users.

It charges 49 dollars for 100 credits or 249 dollars for 1,000 credits and 50 credits buys 60 minutes of instant messaging time or 10 emails to different users.

Mr Biderman is planning a full launch later this year of the business in Britain and Ireland, where it already has 25,000 registered users.