Next weekend millions of viewers will tune into Super Bowl XLIV featuring the New Orleans Saints versus the Indianapolis Colts. The Super Bowl is a huge event featuring our football champions and over the years it has become the place where the most unique, expensive, and much anticipated commercials are launched. TV Super Bowl ads have become such a phenomenon that sales for 30-second commercial slots sell for $2.5 million to $3 million, and each year it reaches an estimate of over 100 million viewers. These Super Bowl commercials have taken on a life their own by becoming themselves a competition, with ratings, winners and losers including the best of 2009 and my favorite, the "Budweiser: Horse in Training Ad."
However, with popularity comes controversy, and TV Super Bowl ads are no different. Last year, PETA was under fire for their "sexual" commercial promoting vegetarianism, NBC deemed it too explicit for the Super Bowl and it was banned. The reason: the "PETA spot submitted to Advertising Standards depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards," stated Victoria Morgan, NBC advertising spokesperson. Over the years other TV Super Bowl ads that were considered too “racy for the masses" have been banned. This year, women’s groups are riled up over an ad scheduled to air before and during the CBS broadcast of the 44th Super Bowl game, celebrating the story about the 2007 Heisman Trophy-winning American football quarterback for the Florida Gators, Tim Tebow.
So, why are "women's groups" creating such a fuss over the Tebow ad? Tebow is a talented, successful football player: he's young and hot "to boot." But wait, Tebow is a Christian whose mother suffered a life-threatening infection while she was pregnant. Doctors expected a "stillbirth and recommended an abortion to protect her life." But Pam Tebow, despite the odds, chose life for her son. Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian ministry, of which the 30-second spot will feature college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam, purchased the ad. They will share a personal story centered on the theme of "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life."
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - doug m
A victory for free speech yet it cost over $3 mil? There seems to be a disconnect there
2 - Christine
Doug, LOL. You are so right, free speech is not "free" at all these days. But I am sure there is a point in there somewhere.
3 - Silas Kain
I don't see anything wrong with the ad. As a matter of fact, I would have gone a step further and said that 45 years ago, Barack Obama's own mother would have been urged to get an abortion because her baby daddy was Black. And we can all thank God that she made the decision for life.
I'm deeply disturbed that CBS has denied that gay dating site ad. To me, the ad is hysterical and will thrive in viral video. And what the far right fringe doesn't realize is I would venture to say there's a silent majority of LGBT folks who are staunchly pro-life.
4 - Christine
Silas, I just heard about the "Man Crunch Ad," and I actually agree, what the heck? I only saw a clip and it seemed fine, buy I will have to check it out in its entirety later.
5 - Christine
Silas, for what's it worth, if you check out my link to the other TV Super Bowl ads that have been banned, one was due to the fact that a dog bit its owner. There are others...
Bud Light Good Dog
Bud Light, Super Bowl XL
In 2006, the “Good Dog” ad was banned from television when it featured a well-trained dog biting his owner’s neighbor in a move that forces him to drop his beer.
6 - Silas Kain
It's funny. I mean, come on, American football is the gayest sport ever! It makes total sense to run that ad.
7 - Miss Bob Etier
Pro-choice should not mean, "you can choose to have an abortion." It should mean, "you can choose to have the baby or to have an abortion." What's so tricky about the word "choice"? Are there people that really don't get that it comprises alternatives? Tim Tebow's mom made her choice, and it was the right choice for her. Is it wrong to respect that? Or does pro-choice mean "you can recommend a choice as long as it's OUR choice"? Insightful article, Christine. --Bob
8 - Matthew T. Sussman
I'm deferring to Bill Maher on this one, which Christine you touched on:
"New rule: The Super Bowl must stop pretending it doesn't take advocacy ads. In turning down ads from certain charities like PETA, CBS and the NFL claim they don't accept advocacy ads, which is ridiculous because every Super Bowl ad is an advocacy ad, and what they mostly advocate is eating fried food and drinking beer until you explode."
Fuck it, run political ads. It'll give us something to talk about the next day rather than which commercial we liked more: the one with the talking koala bear or the talking wallaby.
9 - STM
Silas: "It's funny. I mean, come on, American football is the gayest sport ever!"
Lol. I must say, as a rugby aficionado and fan of a real man's sport, and looking at American football from an overseas perspective, the stretchy lycra pants (some teams even have spangly ones!), the 1960s motorcycle helmets and the big shoulder padding a la Dallas circa 1982 are a real worry.
I realise they use pads in case they get a bit of a knock, but the other worry is the fact the players don't play a full game and there are separate teams for attack and defence.
Come on, get a grip or get a new handbag.
I've also heard that some of the players also sport mullets and high hair.
10 - zingzing
oh, fer fuck's sake, stm. now it's "gay?"
11 - STM
I didn't it zing! Silas did.
I just worry about some of the gear they get around in. I mean, seriously, spangly lycra pants that come down just below the knee??
All that stuff went out years ago. They need a new designer. It's too '80s.
12 - Irene Wagner
Yes, STM, that look leaves the shins way too vulnerable. I'm thinkin'....maybe this?
13 - jeannie danna
Christine,
I like your style of writing, clear and concise without too many insults and jabs.
The PETA commercial could not be viewed unless you sign in, maybe you can post it a different way.
I don't see the problem with airing this commercial and I think I'm way out there on the left right now.
Though I do say, "Let all commercials air during the Super-Bowel or any other time because, what the heck, if you have the money then by all means spend it on what ever you want to jam down peoples throats."
This is the American capitalist way.
;and there's not much the viewers can say or do about it anyway. This just my opinion.
14 - Christine
#13) Jeannie: I think you are over 18....but mine goes right through. But you can access that same ad (the extended version that includes the the animal cruelty) on the link I posted at the end about PETA. WARNING, the sexual aspect is nothing compared to the animal cruelty part will give you nightmares.
PS: Thanks for the compliment. Coming from you it means a lot! :)
#8) Matt: Love Bill Maher even if he way out there on the left and kind of mean at times. Isn't he back this month? And you are absolutely correct, they advocate a shit load of alcohol and junk food.
#7) BOB: Thanks too!
15 - Christine
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSS! xo
16 - jeannie danna
Christine,
HA,HA,HA, waaaay over eighteen! :) see? Who says people with different beliefs can't get along...OK, I'll look again. thanks!
17 - Christine
J: lol, me too. Gotta run. Have to take my CPR class today for my ACE Fitness. Have a great Saturday all.
18 - jeannie danna
Christine,
Good luck with CPR class, when you come back you might have to revive me!
I just watched, "Meet Your Meat" which was much more upsetting than a commercial depicting sex with a head of broccoli!
I must add that because of the fact that these commercials only show women and not men is what makes them unfair for all of us. not out of any puritanical beliefs on my part.
:} Speaking of exercise, "Why does the treadmill in my bedroom turn into a clothes hanger so fast?" and I better go jump on it again.
19 - Silas Kain
oh, fer fuck's sake, stm. now it's "gay?"
Yep that was me and I maintain my stance. I'll go out on a limb and say that at minimum 40% of professional football players have the potential of being fence hoppers. And, who cares? I mean, sport is sport. What an athlete does in the privacy of their lives is their business. Unless, of course, you're an athletic member of Congress -- then it becomes OUR business (well, not really, just the hypocrites!).
20 - Cindy
And in other objections about the PETA commercial. Some women feel that treating women like animals in order to save animals is pointless or worse.
Lets' treat women badly so we can sell the idea of not treating animals badly? That does not compute. Using women's bodies to sell things? A world where they will be considered tits and ass? Is that the world you want for your daughters? How do women accept this?
21 - roger nowosielski
I still have a problem with Super Bowl advertising as a venue to score political points. If the pro-choice interests aren't sufficiently funded to present the opposite view, they're screwed.
22 - Christine
FYI: Just learned in my CPR class that the highest number of choking cases occurs on Super Bowl Sunday. Drunks, eating while yelling at the TV, don't mix. This is not a joke. So you all be careful next Sunday.
Cindy, I didn't see anyone here respond to the PETA commercial. PETA could of done without the "semi-sex with veggies," part and made a better, more educational ad by sticking to the facts.
23 - FitzBoodle
It would be more interesting if they had an ad that advocated ending football entirely because of the deaths and damages it has caused to players. They could parade out a whole bunch of parapalegics, some of whom were crippled in High School because of football.
24 - Cindy
That would be an interesting ad, Fitz. I expect that might be run concurrently with the one that says TV destroys your brain.
25 - Hayley Woodgate
It seems Tebow has created a fair amount of discussion on and off the field. Thanks for the article and it's great to see so many people getting involved with the comments... PETA or pro-life... always makes for interesting debates :-)