Here are two ads you won't see during the Superbowl but should.
Planned Parenthood's Response to the Tim Tebow Focus on the Family Anti-Choice ad:
I don't think Planned Parenthood has tried to get their ad aired during the Superbowl, but I also don't imagine that Planned Parenthood thinks spending almost $3 million for a 30-second spot is a good use of their limited resources when those resources could be better used to help provide healthcare for women.
Mancrunch Gay Dating Website ad:
CBS says their Standards and Practices department decided to reject the ad. Sure, this ad is racy, but it is less over-the-top or offensive than some of the previous Superbowl ads we've been subjected to?
Take a look at this homophobic 2009 Snickers Superbowl ad.
GoDaddy is also famous for their racy ads:
Lastly, check out this ad for AshleyMadison.com, a website for people looking to have extramarital affairs. It was banned in most of the U.S., but ran in Texas last year. Personally, I'm so offended by the ad endorsing infidelity that I won't put it on Little Merry Sunshine.
The Superbowl has a history of over-the-top and often offensive ads. It's too bad that they've decided this year to show an ad encouraging women to defy their doctors' advice and possibly risk their lives and have a history of being homophobic, sexual, and encouraging infidelity, while ignoring perfectly legitimate relationships and empowering women.
There is an argument to be made for CBS against their decision not to air ManCrunch.com's ad. NPR did a story on it on "All Things Considered" in which they revealed that CBS had issues regarding ManCrunch's shaky credit and the fact that despite the fact that they told CBS they were willing to pay cash for the ad, that cash isn't as readily available to this group as they may insist it is. (In other words, they can't really afford the ad.) There is also an argument that they used this opportunity, ManCrunch did, for a bit of publicity, as is common during Superbowl ad week.
ReplyDeleteWhat is more upsetting, is the example that in 2004, CBS rejected two ads: one from MoveOn.org, which criticized President Bush and another and more disturbing, from the United Church of Christ (?) (I wrote about it in my blog) and that ad? All it did was state how open they were to gay and lesbian people whereas other churches aren't as welcoming.
Focus On Family wants to waste this amount of money? Good. But, what pisses me off is there's not equal time being given to other issues.
The Nation had an amazing article on this subject.
Oh, Bethany, you are right about those 2004 ads! I had forgotten about them. I will go find them and post them. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAs for the ManCrunch ad being a publicity stunt . . . aren't all the Superbowl ads publicity stunts? Certainly all those GoDaddy ads that all say you can see the rest uncensored on their website and that Snickers ad were publicity stunts. They're meant to grab attention and keep people talking. Focus on the Family is getting way more bang for their buck by running their ad during the Superbowl than if they ran it in the middle of Desperate Housewives or CSI. Just look at all the blogs and media outlets talking about it. All that is free advertising.
I gotta say, I don't really buy the argument about ManCrunch's credit . . . if they can pay the cash and they pay upfront, then what's the problem? And