Recently, CBS announced it’s decision to reject a Superbowl ad from ManCrunch.com, a dating website for gay men. After 11 days of deliberation (a process that usually takes 48 hours), the company killed the spot on the grounds that it was “not within the Network’s broadcast standards for Super Bowl Sunday.”
Meanwhile, CBS green-lighted an ad featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother telling the story of how Mrs. Tebow’s refusal to have an abortion lead to the birth of a child who eventually became the youngest Heisman Trophy winner in history.
At it’s most basic, the Tebow ad seems to be saying that abortion kills future sports heroes (never mind the Steven Hawkins’s of the world). But the logic is very flimsy. Hypothetically, if my mom had gotten pregnant and had a kid as a teenager, the likelihood that she would have met and married my dad is slim to none. Which means goodbye Nicole. Granted, I’m not a football hero, but I’m not Ted Bundy either. Who’s to say which children are better? Unlike Mrs. Tebow, many women facing abortion are not in a stable marriage expecting baby number five. Trying to apply this simplistic formula to the entire female population is absurd.
But never mind all of that. What this really comes down to is whether the Superbowl, or any sporting event for that matter, is an appropriate place for politicking. If the answer is yes, then by all means run the Tebow ad. BUT, that also means that you shouldn’t discriminate against an ad condoning homosexuality. CBS should run ManCrunch if they’re going to run Tebow. Or even better, Tebow and ManCrunch should share an ad because who has less abortions than gay couples? I wish I could take credit for that last line, but it comes compliments of my friend Chris Griffiths, quoting George Carlin.
I myself believe that the answer to that question is no: sports and politics do not mix. And I’m betting that many Americans, on both sides of the abortion issue, can at least agree on that.
Info for this post came from CNNMoney, ABC and Mashable >>
If you want to read a funny, outlandish piece on this subject check out this post by Timothy Griffiths (Yes, he and Chris are brothers).
You must log in to post a comment.