The most controversial Super Bowl commercial turns out to be... well not so controversial. After 3 weeks of gossiping about what this commercial would say and what it meant to America, it comes to a pleasant, if not comical, end. If people were offended by this commercial... well let's just say I've found a new level of dissapointment.
I first heard about it on the radio. For the first time, the big execs decided to allow a politically/socially charged commercial to make it on the line up during the most expensive ad time in the world. People were calling talking about how they "don't want to be preached to" or see a bunch of "righteous propaganda" while enjoying the Super Bowl.
Later on I heard from my sister that the commercial was starring Tim_Tebow and was telling his birth story. Apparently doctors told his parents that it was best to get an abortion, but they decided not to. The story is much more interesting than that, and you can find it told here in a Sports Illustrated interview. "Can't wait to see it," I told her.
Wow, people were getting furious that the group "Focus on the Family" were allowed to have a commercial. All major networks were talking about it, bloggers were writing about it, even Saturday Night Live made fun of it.
Focus on the family and the Tim Tebow foundation got millions, if not billions of dollars of free advertisement, just because they got permission to air an ad during the Super Bowl.
So what was this outrageous, self-righteous, woman-hating, society-ruining message. Tim says, "You still worry about me mom?" Pam, "Well yeah, you're not nearly as strong as I am." After he tackles her. =)
What was the message from focus on the family? "Celebrate family, Celebrate life."
We definitely need to block commercials like these and add some more of those Godaddy.com commercials. (sarcasm)
If you haven't seen the commercial yet, you can find it here.
You can see that it has 3-400 TIMES more comments then almost all the other commercials.
Comments
My problem is not with this ad per se - I believe in free speech - but that the network has denied ads from other groups, like the United Church of Christ, for more progressive stances. The ad was not upsetting in itself at all, but everyone knows what it is pointing to. So CBS should have a balanced take on accepting ads regarding controversial issues.
You bring up an interesting point, freedom of speech. I imagine that if beer commercials were suddenly banned from television there would be an uproar. But to say that you value life, thus implying that you are against abortion, and people shout they don't want to hear it!
It's interesting that people think they have the right to dictate what kind of commercial they want to watch during the super bowl. That the networks are so worried about offending people, they won't accept the boat load of money they charge for time slots. Though i admit, i've seen some of the distasteful commercials that were banned from super bowls past, and i appreciate that they chose not to air them.
So in the end, i guess i understand the networks hesitancy to be a "buzz-kill". And I appreciate that they allowed this commercial in, thus showing that these sensitive topics can be brought up without pointing fingers or flinging arrows.
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