Superbowl Outcome and Outrage

Congrats to the New Orleans’ Saints on an outstanding game yesterday! The tactic of keeping Manning off the field for most the game paid off wonderfully.

We had a small gathering of friends over to enjoy some wings, shrimp and the usual chips and dip. The game turned out to be quite an enjoyable event as the Saints take home the World Championship title for the first time in their history. As a Carolina Panther’s fan it was nice to see a member of our conference take home the trophy.

One of the main reasons we enjoy the Superbowl is the game, but we also look forward to the creative and sometimes hilarious commercials that come with the game. The half-time show is usually to “over the top” for the most part and I have to say signing The Who to play was a real lame, but actually timely performance.

To think an establishment protest rock group from forty years ago belting out their anti-government songs was rather an ironic twist, and I enjoyed a chuckle or two as we sang along “…meet the new boss, same as the old boss…”.

The commercials:

On a scale of 1 – 10 in comparison to prior Superbowls, yesterday’s performance ranked a dismal 3 in our little groups unofficial tally. The sock puppet (toys) commercial made the top pick. One theme we all commented on was the lack of any real sponsors other than all the CBS network shows. Each break seemed to show the same CSI (multiple places) promo as well as the other shows on CBS. Since we don’t usually bother watching CBS they were a total waste of air space for us. We came to the conclusion that companies must be tighting their adverstisement belts and just not paying the $2 million plus price tag for 30 seconds of air time this year.

One commercial that has the “progressive” anti-free speech crowd up in arms over with the lead up to the Superbowl was the Focus On the Family spot, which has been report to cost $4 million for air time. For over two weeks, reports, news briefs, and e-mail alerts were flying around like flys on manure about how this was going to be the most horrendous attack on abortion rights and (go figure) homosexuals freedoms. Um, after seeing the spot all I can say is … wtf? How is that spot which does not mention anything about abortion, homosexuals, or anti-atheist agendas stirred up the far left so much? Here is the spot:

The media machine at Planned Parenthood (Abortionhood), which receives untold millions with promoting abortion choice – not adoption or acceptance or life chioce, has been cranking out video after video in protest of this spot. The “progressive” homosexual community, I haven’t heard too much from them other than this blurb from the Obama media machine:

Super Bowl Double-Standard

Hey Daniel,

When CBS made the decision to inject abortion politics into the Super Bowl by running a commercial from the anti-choice and homophobic group Focus on the Family, the network set off a storm of criticism from progressive activists charging CBS with maintaining a discriminatory double standard.

In years past, CBS has regularly rejected advocacy ads from progressive groups, including a 2004 MoveOn ad that criticized President Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility and an ad from the United Church of Christ showing them welcoming a gay couple who had been turned away from another congregation.

CBS ultimately refused to back down in the face of this criticism. But while Focus on the Family was able to have their thinly veiled anti-choice Super Bowl ad approved, their $4 million investment – money they spent after laying off 20 percent of their staff – also bought something else: collaboration and bridge-building among women’s rights and gay rights activists.

As Change.org’s team of bloggers argued this week, the controversy surrounding this advertisement has illustrated why every gay rights advocate should be a feminist, and why every feminist should be a gay rights advocate.

Yes, this advertisement sparked controversy. But it might also spark a combined movement for change that lasts much longer than a 30 second commercial.

This was from the Change.org weekly update of pressing news and views.

How in the world this group of folks can be in such an uproar over this commercial blows the mind of sane humans. What are your thoughts on the game, the commercials or this protest?

Print PDF