The Super Bowl Commercial That Fox Refused to Air

Last updated on: February 4, 2020 at 8:35 am by Gene Veith

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You saw the Super Bowl ads. But you didn’t see this one.

For background about the ad, the refusal to air it by Fox Sports, and identification of the people featured, go here.

Why wouldn’t Fox Sports air this ad? It had commercials featuring a drag queen and a same-sex married couple, political ads from both Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump, and an overtly sexual half-time show. None of that is controversial any more. But this is.

Since we put Super Bowl commercials under the microscope, as creative exemplars of their genre, consider the merits of this one: the simplicity, the dignity, the artistry of the black-and-white photography, the appeal to reality–actual, concrete human beings–as opposed to abstractions.

Pro-choicers cannot abide putting a human face to abortion. They have to hide the issue behind abstractions and rhetoric.

HT: Paul McCain