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Loading ...Super Bowl ad rejected by LA station
02.02.2009 3:42pm EST
(Los Angeles, California) A gay marriage equality group says a local Los Angeles TV station refused to run a same-sex marriage ad during Super Bowl programming on the advise of the National Football League.
GetToKnowUsFirst.org said Monday that it was informed Friday that the ad, featuring a gay family, was rejected by KNBC after the station showed the ad to the NFL Legal Department.The group said that it was told the NFL considered the ad “advocacy,” a category which the NFL says it excludes.
It is the second time in weeks that the ad, featuring a same-sex African American couple, has been rejected by an LA station. KABC refused to run the 30-second sport during its coverage of President Obama’s inauguration.
GetToKnowUsFirst.org Project Organizer John Ireland said he was shocked to see the other advocacy ads run during the NFL programming.
“We bought ads before, during and after the Super Bowl in ten markets across California. We planned this buy weeks in advance and heard late Friday that the NFL rejected our ads because they violate the NFL’s ‘no advocacy’ policy. I was truly stunned while watching the programming, to see that they had selectively blocked our ads, while allowing other advocacy ads to air,” said Ireland.
Among the advocacy ads which did air were PSAs for TobaccoFreeCA.org and DontBeAnAsterisk.org, an anti-steroids advocacy campaign.
“We are disappointed that this ad couldn’t reach an audience with images of our families during one of the most watched programming events of the year,” said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Giuliano said that GLAAD has asked for a meeting with KNBC and GetToKnowUsFirst.org to discuss why the commercial was rejected and find ways to remedy the situation.”
The PSAs were produced for GetToKnowUsFirst.org by the non-profit organization POWER UP. Gina Levy, who directed the PSAs, said she was angry that the ad buy was blocked.
“Marriage Equality is a civil rights issue,” she said in a statement. “As a straight woman, I know this affects all of us, not just people who happen to be gay. It is important for us all to get to know these families. It’s a shame that’s not going to happen today.”
KNBC and the NFL have some explaining to do.
Sounds “very selective” to me. They “know” what they are “doing.”
I hope our response has some teeth to it. It is time to use the law to harm companies that make these decisions and get executives fired. In my company the fear of being fired is touted as one reason to behave responsibly (in addition to a true desire to win with integrity and to uphold our brand in the marketplace). I know that getting a few exec’s fired will change practices. I just wish I was in a position to make a difference but hopefully GLAAD will do its good work here.
BTW, what a great idea to use the Super Bowl as a vehicle to get our message out…all jokes about the homo-eroticism of the game aside, this is a group that needs to hear our message.
I’m sure, like with my family, most on “our” side find something better to do during this national waste of time. We were at a dinner party. The week before when it was all football talk all the time, I interjected into my conversations “have you seen that new exhibit over at the Clark…..”. Have to have fun pointing out how ignorant and ill informed most of my sports-breathing coworkers are (blank stares abounded…exhibit? they had football exhibits at a museum?). Don’t these people care about art, politics and society too?
Maybe if Americans were more well rounded we would have a better understanding of our families. Most men I know through business aquaintances have no idea who represents them, what is going on in the art/culture world and lack any inckling of history more than 20 years old.
One of my execs recently told me he was taking his kids to the “children’s museum” in town. It isn’t…it has a world class collection of Hudson Valley paintings, but happens to have a few exhibits aimed at his kids. Sadly I’m not sure we can make progress with these people, they don’t even think, much less think for themselves.
hi!!!
Get to know us should have tried an add with two cute lesbians. They most likely would have let that one air.
Tom in Long Beach
How can they reject that? That is bull crap!
http://stuffqueerpeopleneedtoknow.wordpress.com/
It would have been nice for the GLBT community to have that sort of positive exposure. However, in other news I saw that an anti-abortion ad was also rejected. I don’t think they were singling us out for exclusion.
This is the second time that KNBC has done this. Where is Lambda Legal on this issue?
JayC: They may not have been singling out this ad; however, they were most certainly making exclusions. I have no problems with a “no advocacy” policy, but when that policy is ignored for a select few, then it becomes an issue.
I say Angelenos BOYCOTT KNBC and KABC and deny them our Gay dollars. Votes and money are all that these haters understand and respect.
So what are we doing about this?
Bravo William Robinson and others on this site. We too, do not have a problem with a “no advocacy policy”, but, when THEY start cherry picking and deciding what is right and wrong, then we have a problem. It is too bad that these TV stations will not stand up to this type of tyranny. Of course they are looking at the dollars and nothing more.
Maybe it is time to let these stations know that Gay dollars are as good as the NFL dollars.
This is going on far too much and far too long, it must be stopped. How many complaints have been filed with the Human Rights Commissions? Lambda Legal need dollars too, in order for them to take on all of the challenges that are coming against the LGBT Community. Have you contributed? Remember to file the complaints people.
Bob and Lloyd
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada
File a compliant with the FCC! Then sue the station and the NFL!
Once again, we just need to be smarter.
Want to show a positive same-sex couple? Have a same-sex couple in a commercial about beer. Or about vacations. Or just about any other product that would normally be shown during something like the Super Bowl.
Then, it’s not advocacy. It’s good old commercialism AND can be written to fulfill whatever goal gettoknowufirst.org was after.
After all, the Super Bowl showed anti-gay commercials revolving around a product. Remember the two guys eating the candy-bar kiss?
So, the NFL would have a really hard time refusing that kind of ad.
I’m sure one of the gay-friendly corporations would have been more than happy to co-produce a commercial focusing on a same-sex couple.
The football thing is one thing,but the Obama inauguration was worse!
How can they include us in a speech and then ban a simple t.v. ad? Talk about screwed up priorities!
I don’t get it!