Sunday Open Thread -One Week from Super Bowl - More Talk About Advertising than the Game

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Sun Jan 31, 2010 at 10:55:07 AM CST

Speaking of ads - CBS will allow the Focus on the Family Tebow ad but chose to ban mancrunch.com gay dating site

Here's the ad

CBS's decision to accept the Focus on the Family ad was controversial because most networks have a policy of banning advocacy ads during the Super Bowl, and have rejected  ones by groups such as MoveOn.org and PETA in the past. Last year, NBC rejected a 30-second public service announcement about marriage equality to run during the Super Bowl.

Andrew Sullivan writes, "In the past, issues ads were deemed non-kosher - but if it's a Christianist and virulently anti-gay organization behind the ad, it appears to be ok. But if it's a humorous commercial ad for a gay dating service, CBS says no. ... There is one reason this ad was denied. Its gay content was deemed offensive to football fans, while an anti-abortion issues ad wasn't. That's called blatant discrimination and if it doesn't lead to aggressive protests I'll be very surprised."

2. The Who Dat Nation - Can we even say that anymore? Yes, it seems that the NFL has backed off it's earlier claim that it owns all rights to Who Dat.

The National Football League appeared to back off Friday on its trademark ownership claims to the phrase "Who Dat" and the fleur-de-lis logo, saying it is challenging the sale of items only "when those products contained or are advertised using other trademarks or identifiers of the Saints."

" 'Who Dat' we do not claim to own by itself," said Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the NFL. "It's when 'Who Dat' is used in conjunction with Saints marks that it's a problem."

McCarthy said T-shirts and items with 'Who Dat' and a fleur-de-lis logo unlike the one owned by the Saints are allowed as long as they are not advertised as being Saints or NFL paraphernalia.

One more reason to cheer for the Saints next Sunday in my book.