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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (36608)	1/30/2004 11:18:49 AM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

CBS' Blackened Eye Ads that advocate beer drinking? Absolutely! Ads that advocate changing presidents? Absolutely not! Ads that take a firm position on erectile dysfunction? Well, that depends. Is the product purported to cause or to cure it? What a silly thicket CBS executives have created for themselves - and for the 90 million U.S. viewers who will tune into Sunday's Super Bowl! You'd think there'd be a deeper principle in here somewhere, a guiding theory to help network censors decide: Which ads will be aired during America's most-watched sporting event? Which ads will be sidelined as forbidden "advocacy advertising?" In fact, there is no deeper principle at all. It just depends on who's advocating what. Famous tax cheat Willie Nelson will appear in a $2.3 million Super Bowl ad, shilling for H&R Block. And the Bush White House has reserved a prime piece of fourth-quarter real estate for another heavy-handed message from drug czar John Walters. (A 2002 study found that previous drug-czar ads made kids no less likely to use drugs - and actually encouraged some young girls to give drugs a try. But that's a topic for another day.) Now watch how CBS responds when a prominent critic of George W. Bush tries to buy 30 seconds of precious Super Bowl air time. The White House isn't doing the advocating any more. Left-leaning MoveOn.org has a powerful new commercial, which CBS believes Super Bowl viewers mustn't see. The ad features children working as factory hands, dishwashers and garbage collectors. "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit," the tagline zings. "Advocacy!" the CBS censors ruled. CBS is the network, don't forget, that just last fall caved to conservative pressure and refused to run a Ronald Reagan miniseries, shunting an edited version onto a cable channel. What would Bill Paley and Edward R. Murrow say now? Black Rock execs are also deep-sixing a Super Bowl ad from PETA, the animal-rights group. The PETA spot features two sexy women with amorous intentions for a pizza-delivery man. But the pizza guy has eaten so much meat he can't perform. The network "does not sell time for the advocacy of viewpoints on controversial issues of public importance," CBS sniffed. The freest spending Super Bowl advertiser this year, with nine ads in all, is Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch, whose ads unequivocally advocate the drinking of beer. Philip Morris USA and the American Legacy Foundation use their spots to advocate against teen smoking, part of the tobacco companies' high-priced atonement for past marketing sins. But the odd distinctions don't stop there. It's yes to Pepsi and Frito-Lay and all manner of junk food. It's yes, yes, yes to a pharmacopoeia of anti-impotence drugs. Three - count 'em, three - erection medications will get super hype on this year's Super Bowl telecast: GlaxoSmithKline's Levitra, Eli Lilly's Cialis and Pfizer's Viagra. Yesterday, Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders and 26 Washington lawmakers fired off a letter to CBS president Les Moonves, objecting to this slippery policy. The lawmakers said CBS seemed to be climbing into bed with the White House, just as all the TV networks are pleading for a major overhaul in federal broadcasting regulations. "The network has run a White House issue advocacy spot on the consequences of drug use during a past Super Bowl," the letter said. "CBS also will air a spot by Philip Morris USA and the American Legacy Foundation advocating against smoking during this year's Super Bowl. Additionally, the network profits enormously from the thousands of issue ads which air on CBS stations nationwide during election campaigns year after year." So why not the MoveOn ad? One final twist: The "advocacy advertisers" who have been cut out of the Super Bowl may actually get the last laugh. The silly censorship has generated a sudden blast of free publicity for them. And they won't have to pay those $2.3 million invoices from CBS. But it might be the tourist promotion people in Las Vegas who get the biggest bounce this year. They've been kept off the big game by the NFL, on account of legalized gambling in Las Vegas. So the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority got busy. They've spent $1.5 million over the past three weeks on two ads that are running on other networks. The ads tout Vegas as the place to party Super Bowl weekend. They have a zippy tag line that echoes louder than ever this year: "If only it was this exciting at the game in Houston." Now there's something to advocate for. nynewsday.com lurqer