The much-anticipated and maligned Focus on the Family ad featuring Tim and Pam Tebow aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
For weeks, pro-abortion groups had made the media circuit complaining about the "anti-abortion" ad and calling on CBS to pull it from its Super Bowl lineup. This, in spite of the fact that none had seen the ad.
When the commercial finally made its debut, Gary Schneeberger, vice president of ministry communications for Focus on the Family, said the critics were nearly silenced.
"The buzz since the ad aired has been nothing but, 'What was all the controversy about?,'" he said. "This wasn't political. This wasn't advocacy. This wasn't controversial. It's an inspirational story about a mother and son who love each other."
Jehmu Greene, president of The Women's Media Center, admitted the commercial was "benign," but expressed surprise at the humorous addition of Tebow tackling his mother.
"Some groups like the National Organization for Women have actually decried the ad for promoting violence against women," Schneeberger said. "We don't know how to respond to that, except to say that right before our ad aired Snickers had an ad in which 88-year-old Betty White got fake-tackled in a pool of mud, and there's no news release condemning that.
I was at the filming of the Focus ad, and I can assure everyone that no mothers of Heisman-winning quarterbacks were harmed in the making of our commercial."
There was no shortage of questionable advertising during the big game. GoDaddy, the Web hosting company, aired its usual over-sexualized fare, with no objection from women's groups.
"Those kinds of portrayals," said Schneeberger, "really can lead to violence against women."
Dan Gainor, vice president for business and culture at the Culture and Media Institute, said the Tebow ad was one of the more amusing offerings.
"The content wasn't the least bit offensive," he said. "(Tebow's) mother didn't even utter the word 'abortion.' She celebrated life. Yet supposed 'women's' groups were up in arms about the ads. The fact that those same groups essentially ignored the sexist Go Daddy ads shows their hypocrisy."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
You can watch the Tebow's story at focusonthefamily.com
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family Action is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
