TV Advocacy Commercials? Give Them All Equal Weight, If You Can
by , Jan 27, 2010, 5:00 PM   • Comment (10)   • Recommend (6)
Subscribe to TV Watch CBS might have had better timing for its
decision to ease restrictions on advocacy commercials. The
network should have put out phone calls to the likes of Planned
Parenthood, the National Organization of Women, and, all to say:
"Hey, if you were thinking about an advocacy commercial, perhaps
now would be a good time. We got this thing called the Super
Bowl coming up in February. It's a pretty big deal."   Of
course, such phone calls would have had those groups' directors
scratching their collective heads.  CBS has softened its
restrictions when it come to advocacy ads -- now allowing the
pro-life group Focus on the Family to buy a TV commercial in the
Super Bowl. The ad features Florida State quarterback Tim Tebow
and his mother discussing how she struggled with a decision over
an abortion before Tim's birth.  CBS has rejected many advocacy
ads in the past. But