The Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad

Yes, let’s put this to sleep now.

Move along, move along! Nothing to see here folks! Cows turn themselves inside-out all time!!

People watch commercials? If the media didn’t cover the super bowl commercials (to death!) over the preceding week, no one would even notice. Over the crunch of chips and the roar of beer belches, no one is noticing the ads.

Focus on the Family missed a big opportunity here. I was expecting something like…

*Dramatic Music*
Mom: “The doctors told me I should have aborted him”
*Shot of Tim as a baby*
Tim: “I always have so much fun doing God’s work in the Philippines” (or wherever he does it)
*Shot of Tim doing missionary work*
Father?: “I was so proud that day”
*Shot of Tim playing football*
*Shot of Tim with the Heisman Trophy*
Mother: “I’m glad I didn’t have the abortion.”
Focus on the Family logo.

The controversy was not the fact that TT was in it, nor speaking about abortion (although that will create controversy when the same network bans commercials of other similarly controversial subjects) – it was TT associating himself with scum such as Focus on the Family.

So, fine, the commercial was tame. But I would not have expected (ready for a Godwin showstopper?) the US arm of the Nazi party prior to WWII to have Charlie Chaplin say anything harsh in radio ad, either (hypothetically, of course).

if i saw that add, i’d just assume he survived some horrible disease or a broken leg.all about ego tripping, he’s a GIFT to the world

Actually, my mistake, both have the same initial text.

@Robert Madewell: maybe you’re pregnant. I go through a large jar a week at the moment (not eating them with ice cream yet though I do crave cheese part way through my snack).

I think in a way it was like some other controversies I’ve seen where they hype it up and let it get hyped up (since we’re all aware of what Focus does) and then pull out an ad that goes “see we’re not about bringing people down with woe tales about abortion!”. It puts a sprinkling of egg on our face, so to speak.

All I know is that the Dorito was the best ad my party saw all night. Death by dorito!

the ad was not controversial at all with all the hype we were making it … the “a” word wasn’t even used. and it seemed to be a commercial about family time. I was expecting some promo video explaining how she didn’t have an abortion. Honestly if I didn’t know prior, I would have thought the ad was for family time like the Mormons have commercials for.

The point isn’t the content of the ad: The point is that the network allowed this ad to run while denying an ad for a gay dating service. This after previously denying permissions for a pro-vegetarian ad, and ads from political sources.

The controversy comes from the fact that the Super Bowl, which typically shies away from politicized ads, suddenly decides that a message from one of the most highly politicized groups in the country is within bounds.

Yep, this needs to go to sleep now. It was so not controversial, which even before it was aired, I never thought it was. My only concern over all of this was fairness in advertising (as Renacier said above me)

The point of the complaints though wasn’t about how extreme or tame the ad was. Whether the ad had showed aborted fetuses or if it was tame like this one, the point of the complaints was that CBS was allowing a religious organization to air an ad about a controversial subject when they ban other organizations like Moveon.org from airing their own commercials on controversial subjects. Even though the ad didn’t directly reference abortion, that doesn’t change the fact that Focus On The Family’s intent was to promote a controversial stance and so CBS was contradicting their own standards.