Thanks to CBS, its SuperBowl ad patrons are receiving horrible publicity

Rebel_with_a_cause

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Sat Jan-31-04 05:08 AM
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Thanks to CBS, its SuperBowl ad patrons are receiving horrible publicity

Edited on Sat Jan-31-04 05:26 AM by Rebel_with_a_cause

The Budweiser, Gillette, Pfizer, Daimler Chrysler, GM, AOL, FedEx, FritoLay, H & R Block, Pepsi Cola, Procter & Gamble, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Visa USA, Philip Morris, Touchstone Pictures, Warner Brothers, NFL and White House ad execs must be saying to themselves, "We paid $3 million for THIS?" CBS isn't winning any friends, either. Will it have any sponsors left after the clock runs out on Sunday?

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0130-05.htm

LA Times, Jan. 30

Outrageous as it may sound, CBS has decided that ads selling erectile dysfunction medicines and toilet paper are appropriate for Americans, but serious discussion should be banned. An ad about our country, our war, our president, the state of our schools or the size of our budget deficit? That, in the eyes of CBS officialdom, would be too controversial.

...snip...

Pfizer can run a spot saying it's "helping people in need" get medicine, but we can't air an ad saying that Pfizer lobbied to weaken the new Medicare bill to prop up drug prices. Halliburton has slick ads that stress its role supporting the troops in Iraq. But CBS would reject an ad that pointed to Halliburton's profiteering.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0128-01.htm

We can understand why CBS executives might not want its male viewers to worry about their virility as they vegetate in front of the screen. But what's wrong with having viewers concern themselves with the country's fiscal irresponsibility at the same time marketers are paying big bucks to entice them to increase their personal deficits with new autos, fast food and prescription medications?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4114703/

"What you run into," says Jamieson, "is the pharmaceutical-manufacturers association in essence telling you how wonderful the pharmaceutical companies are and how good it would be to have a drug benefit that had these characteristics, but it never mentions a candidate and the networks don't recognize that that's actually issue advocacy."

CBS executives claim they do not run "issue" oriented ads, unless, of course the issue appeals to them-such as the politically motivated White House ads linking drugs and terrorism or Philip Morris' oxymoronic anti-smoking campaign.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_3976.shtml

This egregious bit of censorship is made all the more obnoxious by the fact that CBS will air an advertisement during the game from the White House's own Office of Drug Policy, which, in appropriately Orwellian fashion, will encourage teenagers to rat out their pot-smoking friends to Big Brother.

The White House's ad follows on the heels of the Office of Drug Policy's memorable 2002 Super Bowl advertisement, which claimed that people who use drugs (not, apparently, including erectile dysfunction drugs) are supporting terrorism. That particularly idiotic moment in the war on drugs wasn't too "controversial" to be unleashed on the public during America's annual pigskin pageant.

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert131.shtml

Franks would not comment when asked about previous White House Super Bowl ads that equated the war on drugs to the war on terror. These ads appeared in 2002 on the Fox network, which aired the NFL championship that year, and in 2003, on ABC.

Franks would not reveal the content of the White House ad planned for CBS' February 1 broadcast. As a matter of policy CBS does not comment on ad submissions in advance of broadcast, Franks said, adding that there is "a thorough vetting of every ad that appears on CBS. End of sentence."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0116-01.htm

Reuters, Jan. 16

U.S. football fans will not see ads featuring scantily clad vegetarians or a political attack on President Bush during February's Super Bowl after CBS said on Thursday that advocacy advertisements were out of bounds on professional football's biggest day.

The network, over the years, has rejected dozens of advertising proposals by advocacy groups, who argue that the network only airs controversial messages that it agrees with.

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"We just want to be able to present our jiggly women," said Lisa Lange, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, asking to join advertisers like beer brewers who has boosted sales with images of scantily-clad women.

The PETA ad shows two scantily clad women snuggling up to a meat-eating pizza delivery man. "Meat can cause impotence," the screen reads after the rendezvous fails.