Super Bowl Censorship

Over the past two decades, Superbowl ads have become almost as important as the game itself. At parties across the country, people who could care less about the game often shut up for the space between TV timeouts to catch the latest clever ads from Budweiser, Google, Coca Cola and the like. Some of the most famous and infamous ads come out that day at as much as $3,000,000 a clip. But what won’t be coming out are any gays on CBS. The papers have finally chimed in on their editorial pages to decry the decision to reject an ad that, gasp, has two men attracted to each other at the most masculine of American sports (besides maybe the no holds barred fighting that keeps gaining popularity): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020403562_pf.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/opinion/06sat4.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print. Luckily CBS isn’t eliminating all political ads. They are ok with an ad by Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother arguing the pro life position. Well at least they’re consistent!

This is not the first debate that has occurred regarding Superbowl commercials. In fact the NFL and whomever is telecasting the biggest guacamole day in any year have pretty consistently supported conservative causes – whether it is celebrating American militarism, the war in Iraq, family values or, indirectly, God and his handicapping hand. NBC, for example, refused to air an anti-abortion ad last year (from Catholicvote.com that used an image of Obama and the tag “Life: Imagine the Potential”) and one about marriage equity. PETA and Moveon.org have been rejected in the past, and NBC did reject an ad in 2004 by the United Church of Christ that included the tagline “Jesus Didn’t Turn People Away. Neither Do We,” targeting gay parishioners. In the past rejection, 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". Now with the Tebow ad (from Focus on Family) they claim: "[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.” Um, what? The first statement is troubling in its own light, given that we do live in a democracy and do have that thing called the First Amendment, that has thankfully been extended to our neighbors down the street (the big corporations that all but run DC already). A few others you might not have heard about that were rejected, can be found here: http://redstaplerchronicles.com/the-top-ten-rejected-super-bowl-commercials/.

Of course, football has arguably tacitly supported homosexuality for years. We have tight ends, quarterbacks who start every play in a rather salacious position while reaching their hands between the legs of their centers before screaming hike, an uncomfortable fascination with penetration by the defense among analysts, men in tights who often pat each other on the ass and openly embrace after big plays and throwing passes at each other or handing their balls to their “backs.” But I digress . . .