Giving God a break at the Super Bowl

I am a Ghost

New Member
CBS is being criticised for choosing to screen an anti-abortion ad featuring star quarterback Tim Tebow during the Super Bowl.

It's the biggest day of the year for US advertising with companies spending between $2.5m and $2.8m to ensure their product is seen by the widest possible audience, but this year's Super Bowl Sunday threatens to be overshadowed by controversy over one of the 30-second slots.

The advert in question? A commercial on behalf of the evangelical Christian organisation Focus on the Family, featuring the University of Florida's star *quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam, which is expected to focus on her decision to ignore medical advice to have an abortion.

The almost $3m advert, which Focus on the Family says was paid for by donations, contravenes a network policy regarding the type of ads shown during the Super Bowl. Several online petitions have called on CBS to pull the ad and 2,288 people joined a Facebook group pointing out the hypocrisy by saying: "Tell CBS Reject The Focus On The Family Ad Or Accept The UCC's!" UCC refers to the United Church of Christ.

"Super Bowl ads are traditionally about making people laugh and, while there's no doubting the sincerity of Tebow's beliefs, I think people will find this jarring," says Clay Travis, an author and journalist who has written extensively about Tebow.


"It's such a flashpoint subject and I'm surprised that CBS would go there after the fuss that was caused by Janet Jackson's nipple. It's not even a matter of whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, I think most people would find an advert dealing with abortion to be out of place during the Super Bowl," Travis adds.

Nor is it just a case of the ad appearing to be a bad fit with the Super Bowl's dancing lizards, singing frogs and magic fridges. Networks have previously made a point of rejecting advocacy adverts for Super Bowl slots – last year NBC rejected an anti-abortion advertisement on behalf of Catholicvote.org which used images of President Obama alongside the caption "Life. Imagine The Potential", in addition to one about marriage equality.

Nor were these groups alone – MoveOn.org and Peta are among those to have seen their commercials turned down while in 2004 CBS rejected an ad on behalf of the United Church of Christ targeting gay parishioners with the tagline: "Jesus Didn't Turn People Away. Neither Do We."

At the time, CBS claimed it had a policy of refusing advertising that "touches on and/or takes a position on one side of a current controversial issue of public importance". In contrast its response to the proposed Focus on Family commercial has been altogether more vague, stressing that "[CBS's] standards and practices continue to adhere to a policy that insures that all ads on all sides of an issue are appropriate for air". Officially the network has only approved the scripts and could still pull the advertisement before 7 February, but the general belief is that it is unlikely to do so.

So why this advertisement and why now? Focus on the Family takes a notoriously hardline stance on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. Its founder, James Dobson, has long been a polarising figure who infamously claimed that "homosexuals want to destroy the institution of marriage"; and the group's political wing, Focus on the Family Action, ran into trouble last year when it ran an ad on its website calling on members to pray for "a rain of biblical proportions" during Barack Obama's acceptance speech.

A year, however, is a long time in politics and while an anti-abortion advertisement would have been unlikely two weeks after Obama's inauguration, many social conservatives feel that with emotions running high over healthcare reforms and the economy, public feeling is swinging back towards them.

More important than that, though, is the man who will star in the commercial, the 22-year-old Tebow, who two years ago became the first sophomore player ever to win the prestigious Heisman Trophy, and is arguably more famous as a college quarterback than many NFL players, with eight Sports Illustrated covers and an ESPN documentary to his name.

On a mission

The home-schooled son of missionaries who wears black make-up referencing biblical passages during games, Tebow has repeatedly talked about his "mission", noting that football enables him to spread "God's word" and making it clear that his talent at the sport (he is expected to be one of the highest picks in this year's NFL draft) is secondary to his religious beliefs. "The key to understanding why they've agreed to this advertisement definitely lies with Tebow," says Travis. "Without him I don't think that CBS would have agreed the ad, he's the most famous religious figure under 40 in this country; but it's still an interesting decision to run the ad because once you've done so you can't go back. It opens the way for Super Bowl ads to become what they've never been – political."

And even within CBS not everyone is happy about that. In an impassioned piece which ran last week on the CBS sports website, columnist Gregg Doyel wrote about his unhappiness with the network, while admitting that the advert itself may make him cry. "I'm not complaining about the ad because it's anti-abortion and I'm not," Doyel wrote. "I'm complaining about the ad because it's pro-politics and I'm not. Not on Super Sunday … It's not a day to discuss abortion. For it, against it, I don't care what you are … [this] is simply not the day to have that discussion."

On 7 February CBS will find out whether the rest of America agrees.
 
I'm joining that Facebook group. CBS=hypocrites tho I ultimately don't agree with having religious adverts during the Superbowl -separation of church and sport pls ;)

In 2005, the UCC sought airtime on the ABC network, only to be told that ABC did not accept any religious advertising. The very next month, Focus on the Family was allowed primetime advertising on ABC's SuperNanny show. "That's what concerns us, the issue of access," said Rev. J. Bennett Guess, the UCC's director of communications.

These are the UCC ads that CBS rejected:





I thought the ads were perfect & tasteful. And funny. It's true we (the UCC) welcomes everyone of all sexual orientations & gender identities, all racial and ethnic Heritages & families of every shape and size (whenever my Mom joins me, I hear an audible *tsk* under her breath :rolleyes:) Our Pastor announces that (among other things) before every worship on Sunday. Makes me proud to have grown up in a UCC all my life. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

From the UCC website: (I'm looking fwd to the April internet ad)

UCC leader questions 'arbitrary' CBS decision to allow Focus on the Family ad

Written by staff reports
January 25, 2010

A decision by CBS to allow a Super Bowl advertisement for Focus on the Family, a conservative religious organization, is eliciting concerns from leaders of the United Church of Christ, which sought to buy advertising from the network but had its ads rejected.

"While CBS is reportedly saying that a bad economy now necessitates changes in its policy on so-called advocacy ads, this decision only underscores the arbitrary way the networks approach these decisions and the result is a woeful lack of religious diversity in our nation's media," says the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, the UCC's director of communications. "Because of its own economic circumstances, CBS is affording time to one religious organization while having suppressed another. This sounds as if the broadcasters think they own the airwaves when, in theory at least, they do not."

Speaking to a National Public Radio station in Los Angeles on January 21, Guess said, "The issue for all of us should be why one religious viewpoint is continually accommodated by the TV networks when there is a common misunderstanding in this country that all religious people hold a monolithic view on certain issues, such as reproductive choice, such as homosexuality, and this is not the case."

Guess pointed out that the UCC encountered a similar situation in early 2005 when it sought airtime on the ABC network, only to be told that ABC did not accept any religious advertising. The very next month, Guess said, Focus on the Family was allowed primetime advertising on ABC's SuperNanny show. "That's what concerns us, the issue of access," Guess said.

In 2004, CBS said it was rejecting the UCC's "Bouncer" ad as "too controversial" because it allegedly advocated same-sex marriage. The UCC maintained this was a gross mischaracterization of the ad's intent which, instead, was to demonstrate that all people, including gay and lesbian people, should be welcome in the church. The church quickly filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, a petition that was dismissed by FCC staff in 2007 and never given full consideration by FCC Commissioners.

The UCC's second ad, "Ejector," which debuted in early 2005 was also rejected by the networks and their wholly-owned cable networks, including LOGO, a channel that targets lesbian and gay viewers.

Focus on the Family says its Super Bowl ad will feature Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. CBS has confirmed approval of the preliminary draft of the script which purportedly will touch on issues faith and abortion.

The apparent hypocrisy in the CBS decision has sparked a number of blogs and a Facebook group to wage campaigns telling CBS to reject the Focus on the Family ad or agree to air the UCC's ad.

"While the UCC does not have plans to purchase network spots at this time, the larger issue of access remains, not just for the UCC but for all religious groups,” Guess said. “When the UCC does return again to CBS or another network, will our distinctive religious viewpoint be heard"

The UCC’s Stillspeaking Ministry — the denomination’s marketing and identity campaign — is producing a new commercial that will launch on social networks and in a broad internet ad buy on April 16.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I agree this ad, doesn't belong in the Super Bowl. It's the Super Bowl, not a place for politcs.
 
The Super Bowl means nothing to me. I don't care what ads are on it. I think the sentence "It's such a flashpoint subject and I'm surprised that CBS would go there after the fuss that was caused by Janet Jackson's nipple" is a (silent) scream.
 
I thought this thread was something to do with saying grace before eating cornflakes for breakfast:confused:

Jukebox Jury
 
Back
Top Bottom