MoveOn knocked out of Super Bowl

[in_cog_ni_to]

THIS is what happens when a political party OWNS the media. CBS has denied Moveon.org the airtime to run the winning ad during the Super Bowl. :grr:

<snip>
Jan. 16, 2004 | Every so often clients call Richard Laermer, CEO of the entertainment and public interest P.R. film RLM, with what they think is a brilliant and novel idea. "I can't tell you how many times somebody has called me and said, 'Hey, I've got a great idea for a media attack. I want to put a naked person in an ad and try to run it in the New York Times, and they're going to turn it down and I'll release that they turned it down,'" he says. Censorship, Laermer has learned, can be its own kind of publicity.

If so, MoveOn.org might reap its dubious benefits. On Thursday, CBS rejected the winner of MoveOn's "Bush in 30 Seconds" ad contest. The online advocacy group was trying to buy airtime to run the commercial, which criticizes the Bush administration's run-up of federal debt, during the Super Bowl, a Feb. 1 event expected to draw 90 million viewers. The ad will run around 30 times on CNN from Jan. 17-21.

MoveOn's contest, which challenged members to capture the administration's depredations in homemade commercials, had already been tinged with controversy. Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, denounced MoveOn after it emerged that two of more than a thousand contest entries posted on MoveOn's Web site compared President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler.

The ad that won the contest, "Child's Pay," was a low-key attack on Bush's fiscal irresponsibility that's unlikely to make anyone very angry. But the Drudge Report's Matt Drudge further stoked right-wing rage by publishing a partial transcript of the awards ceremony MoveOn held in Manhattan Monday, which was full of denunciations of the president. One of the ceremony's performers, Margaret Cho, was soon after bombarded with messages like this one, from someone named Chris Smith: "F$@# you you oriental c$%& . you are not even an american. You are soooo stupid. Go f$@# yourself and go back to Asia you slanted eye whore." <snip>


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/01/16/moveon/index.html

[Jack_Dawson]

1. Fox I can believe...but CBS?

They've been quite unflattering to the Prez of late. It was CBS who broke the "Bush knew about 9/11" story, it CBS who aired the Paul O'Neill 60 Minutes interview...I'm not sure I would necessarily believe it's a conspiracy.

[el_gato]

2. puhleeze corporate media is a scam

cbs is just as bad as all the others

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. True,

but I think the RWers have gotten to them. Look at the Reagan movie they decided not to show. :(

[wtmusic]

4. Not ready for prime time

sad but true :(

[bearfartinthewoods]

5. has there ever been a political ad run during the superbowl?

i ws talking about this with a football an and he said the last thing anyone wants to see during a game is a political ad.

[in_cog_ni_to]

9. I don't know.

:shrug: The last time I watched a Super Bowl was in 1985 when the Chicago Bears won. :7 I would watch this year though, just to see this ad!

[YNGW]

20. Some claim...

... and with some merit, that the ad saying if you buy drugs you're funding terrorists was political.

I would repharse what you said to this:

"Has there ever been a political ad attacking or promoting a particular presidental candidate or a sitting president that has run during the superbowl?"

The answer is that I can't recall it ever having happened either.

This is not a surprise. I noted that to try and sell the commercial timeslots prior to and/or following this ad would likely scare away potential advertisers. CBS purchased the right to the Super Bowl in order to profit off the advertising.

[indigo32]

6. We should push back

thats crazy. I'm gonna contact them and let them know what I think.

[rucky]

7. It's not enough to quit watching CBS

Somebody needs to watch the super bowl, take note of the ads, and organize a BOYCOTT those companies.

Let's write MoveOn & try to organize this thang. Who's with me?

[Wickerman]

8. thats the idea

Make enough noise that CBS regrets not just quietly showing the ad. Censorship ALWAYS backfires.

[the_boxer_]

11. True...

How can I help?

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. And then

tell the sponsors we are going to boycott them. This needs to be a fight!

[Sir_Shrek]

13. Why boycott the advertisers?

It's CBS who's not running the ad...the other advertisers running don't have any say in who gets airtime and who doesn't. IF they did, they'd try to knock all of their competitors off and keep the airtime for themselves.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

14. I think the idea is to....

hit CBS in the pocketbook. If enough people threaten to boycott the products advertised during the SB, the advertisers may (in theory) put pressure on the network to acquiesse. Now, mind you, this is a lofty goal and would take startling numbers to do it, but boycotts have worked in the past and can work again, but only if the opposition is organized.

Make sense?

[blondeatlast]

27. Precisely. And when the talk post-SB is of the commercials, we MUST

make sure there is plenty o'talk about the one that DIDN'T run.

[blondeatlast]

26. The HELL they don't . . .

Advertisers can and do make such stipulations.

[ArkDem]

21. Yes. This makes so much sense

.

[Jack_Dawson]

12. People Hate Buzzkills

And i'm pretty sure anything MoveOn or PETA airs would fall into buzzkill territory. If it ain't a Lite Beer ad or Ford commercial, it's gonna have a hard time flying.

[freespeechhere]

15. Margaret Cho could do stand up, perhaps

The Super Bowl is all about the half-time show.
Maybe MoveOn.org could do something there ; )

[rucky]

22. Super Bowl ad = instant credibility

doesn't matter how people will take it, but they WILL take MWO seriously after that.

[mermaid]

16. It's All Right

They are playing right into our hands. Our Move On Commercial is now being discussed on every talk show, every discussion board...EVERYWHERE!
The curiousity alone is going to make even MORE people view it than would have if we DID run it during the Super Bowl..and the best part is...all this advertising is FREE!!

It's like the whole controversy with The Reagans. If the right-wingers hadn't opened their trap, most people would have cared less about a documentary on them. Instead, huge interest was created.

Same for this commercial, and the controversy it is generating! HUGE amounts of people are going to view this ad...discuss it, disseminate it...and it will get far more airtime and play...and will reach MORE people now, because it's controversial...and just maybe enough swing voters will see it to recognize the truth.

Imagine the pride the maker of that commercial must have today! Imagine his pride in November when the analysts determine HIS commercial had a lot to do with getting W out of office!

The maker of that commercial should be hailed as a national hero! And considering him for a place in the (hopefully) Dean Administration would be great! Can you imagine this guy being, say, the official spokesman of the White House?? Our version of Ari Fleisher??

LOL!!!

That'd be one in the eye for the Repukes, no?

[EV1Ltimm]

17. i don't blame cbs...

that ad would have been a powderkeg. i'm sure it was worth losing the 2.4 million dollars to not have to sort through the hate mail and take the angry phone calls that the ad would surely have generated.

and besides, however nice it would be to get the message to the people, the people watch the superbowl for the funny commercials.

[OneTwentyoNine]

25. Yeah,they want to keep politics out

I think CBS doesn't want to turn the Super Bowl into a political fight,I can agree with that decision but it needs to be watched carefully for ads running against Dems or pimping Chimboys Iraq invasion.

David

[Zuni]

18. No network would run any political ads during the superbowl

they do not want to potentially offend millions of viewers.

This would be a powder keg for CBS, especially after the reagan's fiasco.

No one has ever run political ads during the superbowl.

[mermaid]

19. That So?

Then what would YOU call the "drugs = support for terrorism" ads?

[patmacsf]

24. Technically it's called a PSA

.... or Public Service Announcement, in the business. I agree that moveon.org didn't really expect that they were going to get their ad on the Super Bowl. It was a good publicity stunt, but they should have known that CBS routinely picks and chooses what ads get on the show and they tend to be mainstream consumer products, not partisan political ads.

Let's all agree that moveon.org is good at playing the publicity game but not get all crazy over this one.

[rucky]

23. The State of the Union address is on right afterward

talk about offensive to millions... and political

[blondeatlast]

28. My understanding is that MoveOn still hopes to run one of the

finalist ads immediately before or after the SOTU.