http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/31/focus-on-family-super-bowl/Despite massive layoffs and budget woes, Focus On The Family plans on spending $4 million on Super Bowl ads.
Firedoglake reports that Focus On the Family, an ultra-right Christian group, is
poised to drop $4 million on a Super Bowl commercial aimed at promoting its anti-choice propaganda. According to sources:
A source says the new head of Focus, Jim Daly, spoke at an evangelical conference a few months ago and unveiled the Super Bowl ad plan. Then he begged for donations from like-minded organizations. According to the source, Daly was given about $3 million, and Focus dipped into its general fund for the other $1 million.
However, Daly doesn’t really seem to have a whole lot of money to spare these days.
Apparently, since 2005, his organization has been forced to layoff chunks of its staff every year. This past September, Focus On the Family let go of 8% of its staff — nearly 500 people. As Lisa Derrick of Firedoglake points out, “isn’t keeping families employed the best way to help them thrive?” In the past, neither anti-abortion nor pro-choice ads have been able to pass the television network and NFL approval process.