Superbowl ad rejected: Gay dating service
Gay dating site's Super Bowl ad rejected by CBS
CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) said it turned down the ad partly for financial reasons, but ManCrunch believes that there's more to it than that.
"It's straight-up discrimination," said Elissa Buchter, spokeswoman for the Toronto-based dating site.
Jacobs of CBS declined to comment on the charge of discrimination.
Buchter provided a copy of the CBS rejection letter to CNNMoney, which states that the ad "is not within the Network's broadcast standards for Super Bowl Sunday."
The letter also states that the CBS sales department "has had difficulty verifying [ManCrunch's] credit status."
Buchter said that basing the rejection on credit status doesn't make sense because "we offered to pay cash." But Jacobs said CBS has no record of any such offer.
CBS is charging up to $3 million for 30-second spots. Buchter said ManCrunch would have been charged $2.5 million for its ad and would have had no trouble paying it, since the newly formed company recently raised $40 million from investors.
Superbowl ad accepted: Christian right anti-abortion group
Focus on the Family buys Super Bowl ad
The Tebows decided to participate in the ad "because the issue of life is one they feel very strongly about," the Colorado-based organization said in a press release.
Focus on the Family is opposed to abortion "under all circumstances, except in the rare instance when the mother's life is threatened by continuing the pregnancy," according to the organization's web site.
The Web site for the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association, which is run by Tim Tebow's father, said that Pam has "a national platform to encourage the pro-life message," noting that she refused to abort Tim more than 20 years ago when she was advised to do so
Focus on the Family spokeswoman Lisa Anderson would not reveal how much her organization paid for the ad or provide further details about it. But she told CNNMoney.com that the funds were donated specifically for this purpose by unnamed individuals. She said the money did not come from the group's general fund.
CBS, broadcaster of the 2010 Super Bowl game, is charging about $3 million for 30-second spots, according to spokesman Dana McClintock. But CBS would not reveal how much it charged Focus on the Family for their ad.
Attempts to contact the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association in Jacksonville, Fla. were unsuccessful.
I've stopped watching CBS because of this.
I never really watched it before, but I hear ya.