The people’s person: Beer, chips and discrimination! Yay football!
Feb 2nd, 2010 | By Katie Turner | Category: Blogs, The people's person
For football fans, the Super Bowl is an excuse to drink plenty of beer, eat an abundance of neon-coloured cheese snacks and sit around watching what tend to be hilarious commercials. Coveted by capitalists from around the world, airtime during the Super Bowl is as precious to advertisers as the ring was to Gollum.
But this year, CBS has taken a decidedly conservative path in choosing which ads will run during the Super Bowl. A dating site meant for gay men called ManCrunch.com was denied a spot during the football frenzy, which takes place on Feb. 7. Despite being prepared to pay CBS between $2.5 and $3 million for airtime, the site was denied by CBS because, “Our Standards and Practices decided not to accept this particular spot.”
The ad features two men watching football and while both reaching for a bowl of chips, their hands meet and they begin making out. Personally, I think this commercial fits the bill for a classic Super Bowl Commercial: men “bonding” over watching sports and an outcome that makes me laugh. Isn’t that what made the Budweiser “Wazzzzup” commercial so funny?
While this ad was vetoed, another controversial ad has been given the go ahead. This particular ad is from the pro-life Christian group Focus on Family. The ad will not be released prior to the Sunday showdown, but it reportedly features former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam talking about her pregnancy struggle with her son. Pam was encouraged by doctors to abort Tim but instead choose to carry Tim to term. This is definitely an inspiring story, but it is also clearly a push for the pro-life campaign.
University of Florida football star Tim Tebow and his mother Pam will be featured in a pro-life ad that will run during the Super Bowl on Feb. 7. Photo courtesy blogs.palmbeachpost.com
This is what I don’t understand — why one and not the other. The Super Bowl can have an ad that encourages an extremely divisive and controversial topic as long as it pushes the conservative ideals?
From my perspective, CBS is making assumptions about who their audience is that may not be entirely accurate. I would like to think that not every middle-aged, football loving man in America is homophobic. This is 2010 and to deny a perfectly legitimate, paying company the right to advertise is archaic and narrow minded.
Did I mention that Tim Tebow doesn’t even play in the NFL? I guess if you can’t be on the field, all it takes is a touching pro-life commercial with your mom to get you to the Super Bowl.
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