"'[I]f the anti-choice position is so true, so mainstream and so critical to the future of our nation, why did Focus on the Family spend $2.5 million to avoid saying anything whatsoever about it?'"

maybe that's how they managed to get their ad on the superbowl. it seems like that tactic worked.

I think it was really clever of them to go for such an innocuous-seeming message. I watched the ad on Yahoo or some other mainstream website soon after it aired on TV, and many of the comments were some variation of "What were those crazy feminist groups getting all pissed about? Can't a woman be happy she had a baby?" I think that was a smart move on their part, and I think that makes the ad all the more sinister than a really blatant "only selfish bitches kill their babies"-type commercial would be.

Yeah, I can't help but feel that feminists/pro-choice groups just got totally played by Focus on the Family... so FotF reveals they will have an ad played during the Super Bowl, who's in it, and what its basic premise will be, but not exactly what the tone will be or what will be said. Feminists and pro-choice orgs get rightfully angry that CBS is reversing its position on issue ads and start campaigning fervently against it, generating tons of earned media for FotF and the Tebows' life story before the ad even airs. Then the ad ends up being pretty content-free in the end, and even though everyone now knows what the hidden message is (you are not a "tough" woman if you choose to have an abortion rather than risk your life carrying a pregnancy to term!), FotF can point to the actual ad content and claim that their message was never that harsh. And they probably got additional traffic to their hateful website!

the main problem with these and other "choose life" appeals is that they confront the "temptation" of abortion but ultimately the women involved make the right decision (tm).

like a women faced with a potentially fatal outcome and choses to end a pregnancy doesnt care about life or her family. or takes the easy way out or some other such bullshit when they weigh the risks and burdens of adding a(nother) child to their family and decide against it.

Unfortunately, I can't remember where I saw it, but I remember a representative saying something to the effect of, "If Planned Parenthood had $2.5 million to spend on an ad for the Super Bowl, they would use it for women's healthcare services."

I just think it goes to show that Focus on the Family doesn't actually *do* anything. Planned Parenthood actually provides necessary services to women in need. I really liked their counter ad that has been circulating around the web. It's refreshing to see male athletes step forward and speak out in favor of women's rights. It proves that you can love your family by loving (and TRUSTING) the women who are a part of it.

They soft-pedaled at the last minute, but whether by accident or design, everyone had heard of what the commercial was supposed to be advancing and with that came controversy and exposure, so they almost didn't even really need to say anything further.

"[I]f the anti-choice position is so true, so mainstream and so critical to the future of our nation, why did Focus on the Family spend $2.5 million to avoid saying anything whatsoever about it?"

Well, weren't we offended a few days ago when it came out that CBS was helping Focus on the Family create an appropriate ad? And now we're criticizing the ad for being too TV appropriate? Perhaps this is how vague a political message has to be to get Superbowl airtime.

Like the PETA ads, perhaps controversy is what the ad hoped to generate in order to further it's message. It's not the ad that's important, but people talking about the ad that is. If it gets you to their website, they're happy.

From what I understand CBS worked with them to allow the ad but only under certain provisions. I wonder how much of what they said was because of CBS' restrictions. It did seem almost pointless and such a shameful waste of money that could be going to something positive. Although, knowing what Focus on the Family spends their money on cough prop 8 cough. If they want to spend it on a totally ineffective ad I say go ahead and let them. People who want to think us out of control feminists were picking a pointless fight will think that regardless.

Yes, the ad is more tame/oblique than expected, but it still bothers me.

1. The repeated reference to Pam Tebow as "tough" and strong implies that women who have abortions are somehow weak and clearly ignoble. (My my, how gracious of you to proceed with your unwanted pregancy! You're so tough! Barf.)

2. This tactic makes Focus on the Family look tolerant and genuinely concerned over women's family planning options, when in fact they work painstakingly to undermine those optons, criminalize women's health care choices, and promote blatant homophobia in the name of "protecting the family." I'm with the Women's Media Center on this one: "We respect Pam Tebow’s choice and the right of every woman to make important medical choices for herself and her family – a right that Focus on the Family is aggressively working to undermine. Focus on the Family has spent millions of dollars in an attempt to fool the American people, when their true intent is to have the government intrude in women's health decisions."

Heisman Trophy sold separately.

"Well, he's all grown up now, and I still worry about his health...Timmy! I'm trying to tell our story here."

*blink* *blink*

...Timmy? What, is he 9 or something? Does Little Timmy Tebow wear those goofy-ass sailor suits when nobody's looking?

"Well, yeah, you're not nearly as tough as I am."

Am I the only one who wants to punch that woman in the face? Lady, you don't know from tough. It's so nice that you had your "choice" and all, never mind that you want to take that same choice away from every other woman because Jeebus sez so. But having your "miracle baby" as a privileged middle-class white woman is kinda different from having it when you're...not. Let's see how "tough" you'd be then, Ms. Thang.

The response from my house:

Baby: bursts into tears as the FotF website appears on the screen
Spouse: "It's OK, Focus on the Family makes Daddy cry, too."

So my perspective on this is:
Is it really ok to just tackle your mom?

I know that there were plenty of examples of sexist garbage in the superbowl ads this year, but this FoF ad made me question the idea that for a pro-life organization are they not anti-violence against women? I would think that tackling someone not wearing equipment would be dangerous and while I get "the joke" that he's a football player, he's a quarterback. The only time quarterbacks tackle people is when they've done something remarkably stupid like passing the ball to a defender that's somehow also close enough for them to actually do something about it. Had he thrown a football into the frame or something like that the "joke" would make sense. But as I saw it, I was very confused.

I think people are looking at this completely the wrong way. I think this ad showed just how weak and non-mainstream the FotF position is.

To quote a commenter at Pandagon:

"They don’t come anywhere close to mentioning their real viewpoint. They want the law to view women as containers, but they don’t come out and advocate that position, instead, they present an utterly unobjectionable story about a woman who had a healthy baby after a scary pregnancy."

They basically made an arguably pro-choice ad. They utterly failed to do anything but create a sleazy way to dupe a few people into visiting their site for more explanation. This is not pro-choice people getting played, this is FotF's failure to create waves.

Yeah, I was suckered into going to a super bowl party and the best part was whenever a funny commercial would come on, people would pay attention. As soon as THIS commercial came on, everyone just went to the food table since it was so dull.

They spent 2 million bucks on absolutely nothing.

Wow. That was totally ... vague. "How many times I almost lost him ... " Yeah, no shit, lady. That's what happens in life. Isn't "life" great? And then the "worry about his health" thing sounds like it's some kind of pharmaceutical ad, or like she's gonna tell us to get tested regularly for prostate cancer.

Also, this shit's like a fucking cartoon, 'cause there's no way your football-player son is going to knock you on your ass and you're going to bounce right back up again like Wile E. Coyote, no blood or anything. Actually, that makes a hilarious-if-it-weren't-so-sad parallel to the anti-choice agenda: Do anything you can to erase or diminish women's humanity, and especially their pain and suffering.

William Saletan wrote a great article at Slate about how Pam Tebow is, more than angelic or strong, just plain lucky. None of the many women (or their babies) who died from the condition she had are even alive to tell their stories: "The Invisible Dead: The Grisly Truth about the Super Bowl Abortion Ad" ( http://www.slate.com/id/2243218/pagenum/all/ ).

And I don't know why anyone would feel "played" by this ad. Regular viewers recognize that it's idiotic and too vague and euphemistic to actually mean anything to them. Even Fox Sports already put it up as one of the 10 worst ads: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/10-worst-Super-Bowl-commercials-0207210?GT1=39002

For all the non-Americans out there who can't view Hulu links: Focus on the Family's Super Bowl commercial :)

The saying "less is more" applies here. They got more publicity about their issue with NOT mentioning their message, than they would have if they did. Now more people will look and think "wow, okay, those folks aren't so bad afterall".