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Super ads get super scrutiny

A truck commercial believed by some to take a shot at the Catholic church sex scandal is nixed from the big game.

By STEPHEN NOHLGREN
Published February 3, 2005

SUPER BOWL XXXIX Gary Shelton: Harrison dials up heat until pot boils over John Romano: The ultimate buddy system Get ready, get set, party Seymour returns, cleared to play Big boats help city make football float Super ads get super scrutiny What they're saying

Super Bowl viewers will be spared the sight of Mickey Rooney's 84-year-old bare bum. Fox Sports has rejected a proposed cold-medicine ad that would have displayed Rooney in a steamy sauna.

Everyone understands why nudity could cause a fuss. Now comes a truck ad, seemingly innocuous to the average eye, but so offensive to one group that it was pulled after one day of controversy.

The 30-second spot, which had been scheduled to air during Sunday's game, shows a clergyman who finds a set of keys in the collection plate. No denomination is specified, but he wears a white collar that could be Catholic.

The keys lead him to the parking lot and a 2006 Lincoln Mark LT luxury pickup. As he strokes the truck, a female background voice croons, "Is it a sin? Is it a crime, loving you, dear, like I do?"

A father and daughter show up, implying that the little girl mistakenly put her father's keys in the collection plate. The priest sighs, gives up the keys and takes the letters "L" and "T," and changes the word "US" on the church marquee to "LUST."

The ad "trivializes and exploits the Catholic Church sex scandal," said leaders of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a national advocacy group. In an e-mail that circulated the country Wednesday, SNAP called on Ford Motor Corp. to pull the ad.

The presence of the girl is troubling to female molestation victims, said SNAP president Barbara Blaine of Chicago.

"We are appalled at how insensitive this ad is," Blaine said. "It just rubs salt into an already very deep and still hurting wound for many of us."

Sara Tatchio, Lincoln Mercury public affairs manager, told the Detroit Free Press late Wednesday the ad had been dropped.

"While we're sensitive to how others feel, we don't agree with the reaction that SNAP had had to the ad. However, the point we're most interested in is making sure that attention is on the Lincoln Mark LT truck and not on a controversy," Tatchio said.

Blaine told the Free Press she was grateful. "Certainly, it will save people from more harm and injury. I think it was a compassionate, kind response on the part of Ford."

Lou D'Ermilio of Fox Sports said the ad was reviewed carefully for taste standards.

"We disagree completely that there is even a hint of impropriety in this spot," he said. "If we had, it would have been rejected."

Super Bowl ads are famous for pushing the envelope of taste and controversy - from flatulent horses and crotch-biting dogs to a dark, cerebral 1984 Apple computer spot widely credited with revolutionizing television advertising.

Balancing access and taste can be difficult. Last year, CBS rejected an ad by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that suggested that eating meat could cause impotence because fat clogs the arteries leading to all the body's organs, not just the heart. The same year, CBS accepted a Cialis ad for impotence that graphically warned of possible side effects.

D'Ermilio said the Lincoln ad was so straightforward the issue of priestly abuse did not arise during the Fox review.

[Last modified February 3, 2005, 10:30:39]