Bright House Networks wanted changes in the script, which criticizes the president's tax plan. An ad agency official says that won't happen.
By Associated Press
Published May 15, 2003
TAMPA - A TV commercial critical of President Bush's tax plan won't air in Tampa after the city's major cable provider expressed concerns about the script.
The commercial was produced for MoveOn.org, an online political activist group, and was slated to air about 10 times a day this week on cable systems in 23 cities, said Lanicia Shaw, executive assistant for Zimmerman & Markman, a Santa Monica, Calif., advertising agency handling the commercial.
The ad is a reenactment of an event in Eugene, Ore., a month ago in which 50 parents lined up outside a clinic to sell their blood plasma to help pay a teacher's salary.
"George Bush's tax cuts for the rich have meant less money for education," the commercial contends.
Dave Hall, vice president of advertising for Bright House Networks in Tampa, denied Wednesday that the company refused to air the spot. He said some script changes were suggested to the ad agency, but the agency didn't respond.
Hall declined to discuss the company's concerns with the spot.
Shaw said Bright House, formerly Time Warner Cable, determined the spot was too controversial and refused to air it unless the script was changed, which was "out of the question."
"We had the spot running one way across the nation," Shaw said. "We weren't going to change it for Tampa."
Cox Communications in Phoenix initially rejected the spot, but accepted it after a story about the controversy appeared in the newspaper there, Shaw said Wednesday.
Cable systems in Miami and Orlando are among the other markets showing the commercial. Time Warner-owned cable systems in five other markets also accepted the spot.
