Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion regarding the anti-abortion ad with Tim Tebow slated to be run during next week’s Super Bowl on CBS.
If you unaware of the hubbub around the ad, this WSJ story provides a healthy dose of links and commentary to get you up to speed.
For the record, I see no problem with the ad running, and it has nothing to do with politics, religion, or even my personal views on abortion. I simply believe that we live in a free country and that if someone is willing to pay for something that does not involve hate speech, they have as much a right to the airwaves as anyone else.
As a blogger, I’m not really sure how I could think otherwise.
Today, I stumbled upon another story that is sure to kick up similar controversy, but that doesn’t involve the name “Tim Tebow” and thus won’t be quite as popular of a topic.
According to FoxNews, CBS is considering airing a Super Bowl commercial for the gay dating site ManCrunch.
From the story:
After days of deliberations on whether to run a controversial Super Bowl ad from gay dating site ManCrunch.com, CBS has not yet reached a decision.
The 30-second spot shows two men excitedly watching the game, before their hands brush as they both reach into a bowl of chips. Suddenly, the two begin making out, much to the shock of a guy sitting close by.
According to a rep for the dating site, which operates under the slogan “Where Many Many Many Men Come Out to Play,” the ad was submitted on Monday, January 18th. When the site followed up on the status of the ad on Friday, January 22nd, they were told by CBS that “the spot hadn’t been officially approved yet” by network standards, and that “all the Super Bowl spots were sold out.”
The most recent update from CBS is that the ad is still under review, but the stakes have been raised now that the general population knows that such an ad was submitted.
Why would CBS not want to run the ad? Quite simply, because some people will be offended by it. Many people are okay with the concept of homosexuality, but may not be quite as comfortable seeing two men kiss on national television. Again, I’m not saying this is right or wrong, just the fact of the matter.
If we remove each of our own personal feelings from the discussion, I don’t think the answer is very difficult for CBS: if they are going to run the Tebow anti-abortion ad, which will offend and upset many people, than they need to also run the ad for ManCrunch, which will offend and upset many people.
If CBS wants play middle-of-the-road, piss-off-no-one TV network – which is certainly their prerogative – then they should air neither of the ads.
My opinion, as you could probably infer from above, is that they should use whatever their normal criteria is for Super Bowl ad selection in these cases. I would assume that for the most part, that criteria revolves around money. And if the anti-abortion folks and the gay dating site folks are willing to pay to play, then give them the exact same opportunity to play as anyone else.
If not, fine; but treat them the same.
What do you think?
What should CBS do about the proposed ad for the gay dating site ManCrunch?
- Air it (33%, 3 Votes)
- Don't air it (33%, 3 Votes)
- Treat it exactly like they treat the Tebow anti-abortion ad (34%, 3 Votes)
Total Voters: 9
Loading ...Update: For more on this, Brooks has a good and probably more insightful post over at SportsbyBrooks:
This sounds more an attempt to smear CBS after the network approved the Tim Tebow anti-abortion ad than a genuine attempt to get a commercial aired during the Super Bowl telecast.
But with CBS painted into a corner after breaking its own ad standards, the network is less likely to reject any spot now out of hand.
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* – ManCrunch image credit: ManCrunch.com via FoxNews
About Jerod Morris
