Controversial FOTF Super Bowl Ad

Well its that time of year again! Hard bench seats. Large men in tights wallowing around in the mud, chasing after a pigskin… all part of the competition for one of those coveted rings! Hot Dogs, barbecue, tailgating and oh… the parties, both before and after the game.

I don’t really like football. There. I’ve said it! I don’t watch it. I didn’t like playing it in school (yes, we did have football back then). However; I respect your right to love the game, and to spend as much time and money on it as you want.

And speaking of money, the reports are out:

• According to USA Today, the average ticket price for recent Super Bowls has ranged $2,600-$4,300.
• Sports Illustrated reports that one of the NFL’s highest paid players, defensive tackle Dwight Freeney of the Indianapolis Colts pulled in a cool $30.7 million for one year, and there are more than 25 players making $10 million a season.
• In America, Super Bowl Sunday is second in food consumption behind only Thanksgiving Day. An estimated 14,500 tons of chips, 4,000 tons of popcorn and 8 million pounds of guacamole will be eaten on the couch and the bench. More than a $270 million increase in average weekly sales is expected by the food industry.
• An estimated 3 million new HDTVs will be sold before the game is aired on Sunday.
• A 30-second commercial during the upcoming 2010 Super Bowl will cost roughly $2.5 and $2.8 million, according to Reuters. Companies like Pepsi, FedEx and GM have all opted out this year due to the current economic conditions, but all of the available spots have still been sold.
• The Census Bureau is paying $2.5 million for two pregame spots, two on-air mentions and an ad during the game to promote this year’s census.

One out of every 12 people watch the game only to see the commercials. And its the commercials that prompted this post. There is a growing controversy surrounding one particular ad that will be aired during the 2010 Super Bowl game. It is a pro-life ad produced and paid for by Focus On The Family The Ad features Tim Tebow (2007 Heisman Trophy winner) and his mother and focuses on the theme “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life.” Click Here To View the Video. You can also get More Information here.

Below is a video interview with Tim Tebow courtesy of the AP:

Several women’s groups have had a negative response to the Tebow ad, and have asked CBS not to run it. When asked if they would run a competing Super Bowl ad, Terry O’Neill, the President of the National Organization for Women, said, “The fact is, if NOW had an extra $2.5 million lying around, I’d spend it on working for women’s equality…. I wouldn’t give it to CBS.”

Planned Parenthood has released a response, with its own football player, Sean James, who played for the Vikings, but it won’t be in the Super Bowl. PP had asked CBS for air-time during the game, but it was not offered.

Frances Kissling and Kate Michelman, in a Washington Post op-ed wrote, “Instead of trying to block or criticize the Focus on the Family ad, the pro-choice movement needs its own Super Bowl strategy… the conversation is being led by Focus on the Family and its quarterback ambassador… women’s and choice groups responding to the Tebow ad should take a page from the Focus on the Family playbook.” Responding to what they wrote, Amy Davidson of The New Yorker wrote, “That is quite reasonable, except for the “or criticize” part. One can believe in the Tebows’ right to tell their story and still be annoyed by a proselytizing Super Bowl ad, just as one can be annoyed by a startlingly tacky ad. There is no free-speech hypocrisy in complaining about dancing lizards or about cloying quarterbacks… People are allowed to put bad ads on television. Other people are allowed to boo.”

Responding to the controversy, Focus President Jim Daly said he has had, “the chance to share the true message of the ad in interview after national interview – and the sheer volume of coverage for our message of celebrating family and life has been worth far more than the cost of the ad itself. Besides that, the media, in covering the controversy, has conveyed many more details about the difficulties surrounding Tim’s birth than we’ve been able to put in one 30-second ad.

“From the beginning, our goal has been to stimulate a discussion about the beauty of life and a mother’s determination to bear that life. Wow, is that conversation ever happening.”
Focus President Jim Daly

So what does the voice of common people everywhere say? If you have the money to spend, run the ad. This ad is no different than those run by both sides of the abortion issue during the recent presidential campaign in 2008. I’m sure that much could be said about the money being spent, and whether it is wise for Focus On The Family to spend so much for the ad. I’m also sure that the pro-choice groups could have run an ad and it would have generated as much controversy from the right.

At issue here is our right to free speech. We hear about it all the time – at least when the media wants to use it to their own advantage. But Americans have the right to speak (and advertise). We don’t have to watch, listen, or support any particular opinion, but we certainly believe in free speech.

Related Resources:

This week’s Focus Action Update online video discusses Focus on the Family’s Super Bowl ad. Click the link to view the video.