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Groups Take Action Over Tebow Super Bowl Ad

CBS will allow Focus on the Family's anti-abortion ad featuring college football star Tim Tebow to air during the Super Bowl ... news that has gay rights groups crying foul and taking action.


FOCUS ON THE FAMILY TIM TEBOW X390 (FAIR USE) | ADVOCATE.COM

Focus on the Family's upcoming Super Bowl spot featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow has been met with a flood of complaints over its controversial subject matter before the ad has even aired.

Tebow and his mother, Pam, will appear in the ad, sharing their personal story about how she opted not to abort him, despite doctor's warnings that he might be stillborn.

Tebow, a senior at the University of Florida, is known for his Christian beliefs and writing Bible verses on his game-day eye black. Focus on the Family is known for lobbying against gay rights, including marriage and parenting rights, to name a few.

To add insult to injury, many are crying foul since CBS refused in 2004 to air a commercial from the United Church of Christ that promoted the denomination's willingness to accept gay and lesbian members; the network cited its policy against "advocacy advertising." The same year, during the Super Bowl, CBS also refused to air an ad from MoveOn.org, a liberal group, which criticized former president George W. Bush over the growth of the federal deficit.
 
Some groups are taking action. Change.org has so far recruited more than 1,100 people to contact CBS about its decision to air Focus on the Family's $2.8 million ad. The ad will air once preceding the bowl and again during the big game.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: DavidW
    Date posted: 4/28/2011 2:41:20 AM
    Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL

    Comment:

    Tim Tebow - remember EVERYONE, he was a UF GATOR! - comes from a racist, homophobic family, in Crackerville, FL. He screams he is "Devout Christian". Definition of a "Devout Christian": racist, homphobic, white trash. Yea, that's the UF Gators for you: Cracker, Cracker, Cracker! BTW: Tebow stinks in the NFL!

  • Name: Christian
    Date posted: 11/1/2010 8:12:43 PM
    Hometown: Wilton

    Comment:

    The problem is not that is is pro-family or anti-abortion, It is that CBS did not allow certain points of view to be heard because they didn't want to take a side a few years ago, and all of a sudden are allowing it. It's unfair and hypocritical.

  • Name: Raver_Kid
    Date posted: 10/31/2010 6:10:54 PM
    Hometown: Tabasco Mx

    Comment:

    whats the problem??? Im Catholic and im against the abort because all babys need to live. like gay we need ti defend the life. is wrong think that the family values is vs gay comunity. so maybe is important to think that what values are in the LGBT comunity if some have sex in public in the gay pride parade for instance, this actiosn are against the things that the cominuty struggle

  • Name: Raver_Kid
    Date posted: 10/31/2010 6:06:36 PM
    Hometown: Tabasco Mx

    Comment:

    Is good go against abort. I think that gay people need to be more stronger, and when a gay pride comeing dont have sex in public and so on, because is very bad for the struggle against the gay right. Im gay im pro gay right and pro gay duties, the abort is BAD really BAD!!! and i think that some groups in the gay comunitie are wrong

  • Name: Clint
    Date posted: 1/25/2010 4:22:43 PM
    Hometown: Thunder Bay

    Comment:

    To the person who said this isn't hateful, I think it is. It's hateful toward women to try to make them feel guilty over controlling their own bodies. It's arguing a fetus is a person based purely on potential, not the actual state. The football player featured in the ad became great because he has sentience(unlike the fetus in the stage of the overwhelming majority of abortions), had social support and he worked very hard. No one aborts a football player, a doctor, nor a welfare recipient. These are all simply potentials, which may or may not come about with other potential developments in later pregnancy and after birth.

  • Name: LT
    Date posted: 1/24/2010 6:46:22 PM
    Hometown: Gainesville

    Comment:

    Palatka Dog You are a true idiot. Could you please explain to me your radical assertion that Tebow is promoting hate and bigotry??? Hate and bigotry?? Really? Typical left wing garbage. If someone has a view different than your own, they are always bad people. Can you please explain to me how wanting people to consider keeping their child instead of aborting it is hateful or being a bigot? Furthermore, you give a list of people to contact about this who have absolutely no power to stop it. Neither the University of Florida nor the NCAA have anything to do with this. You seem like a pinhead who is just ranting with no basis for your ignorant opinion.

  • Name: mysnappyusername
    Date posted: 1/23/2010 2:22:15 AM
    Hometown: Chicago

    Comment:

    Is the shot in this a mock up, or is it representative of the actual ad. If it's representative of the actual ad (e.g., Tebow actually spends a significant amount of time running around in the Florida uniform), I would think that Focus on the Family would have to have conyntacted Florida before running an ad of somone running around in their uniform. I'm pretty sure that most trademark attorneys would have told them, get a license from Florida before you run this commercial So...either there's paper behind this approving it, in which case the decision has already been made, and you know where Florida stands. Or, Florida has not consented to the use of its trademarks. In that case, Florida might very well stand the best chance of getting this ad pulled. If they wanted to. Lanham 43(a)(1) and (2); 43(c)(1) (though you may have problems getting to fame without niche fame) but 43(a) should do it. So, maybe, contacting Florida isn't the worst idea on this one.

  • Name: Palatka Dog
    Date posted: 1/22/2010 10:28:10 PM
    Hometown: Gainesville, Florida

    Comment:

    As a UF alumnus what irks me most is that Tim Tebow is using his position as a Gator athlete to promote hate and bigotry disguised as family values. He does not represent the views of The University of Florida or The Gators. UF alumni and Gators are encouraged to contact one or all of the following people: UF President J. Bernard Manchen: (352) 392-9506, President@ufl.edu Director of Athletics Jeremy Foley: (352) 375-4683 x6000, Administration@gators.uaa.ufl.edu UF NCAA Faculty Representative Dr. Jill Varnes: (352) 392-0578 x1225, jvarnes@hhp.ufl.edu UF Assistant Director of Multicultural and Diversity Affairs and Director of LGBT Affairs: (352) 392-1261 x224, acstokes@multicultural.ufl.edu Editor of The Independent Florida Alligator Chelsea Keenan: (352) 376-4458, ckeenan@alligator.org Let's correct Tim's misrepresentation of our alma mater and football team. And let's do a better job in the diversity training of our athletes. We are all family, Tim. GO GATORS!!!

  • Name: Alfie
    Date posted: 1/22/2010 8:53:13 PM
    Hometown: Cincinnati

    Comment:

    Tivo the Tebow.

  • Name: Mary Lou
    Date posted: 1/22/2010 2:09:32 PM
    Hometown: New Jersey

    Comment:

    I see the issue as this. if a network won't air an ad by churches welcoming gay families, purportedly an 'advocacy' ad, why will it air an ad taking a side on legal abortion? pro-gay is advocacy but pro-life is not? curious.

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