CNN.com's Aaron Smith covers a failed attempt by homosexual dating site ManCrunch.com to buy a Super Bowl ad today, showcasing a brilliant use of media frenzy around the big game to grab market share.
I had never heard of ManCrunch before today and I'm millions of others hadn't either. And my guess is that ManCrunch's management couldn't really afford to buy a Super Bowl advertisement anyway. But in producing one, and getting rejected, they get a publicity bonanza without actually having to pay for the ad.
The anti-abortion people behind the Tim Tebow ad must be on their way to CBS now to demand a refund. CBS claimed that the decision was financial but they also require companies buying ads in the game to keep the financial arrangements confidential - it's in the contracts - so ManCrunch's PR team could lock them into the kind of non-denial denial that cements the idea that the decision is anti-gay discrimination.
"It's straight-up discrimination," said Elissa Buchter, spokeswoman for the Toronto-based dating site.
Jacobs of CBS declined to comment on the charge of discrimination.
Buchter provided a copy of the CBS rejection letter to CNNMoney, which states that the ad "is not within the Network's broadcast standards for Super Bowl Sunday."
Frankly, the folks who run Go-Daddy.com commercials and Janet Jackson performances have a hard time arguing that ANYTHING is not within their broadcast standards.
It would have been more mature of the business media to ignore this as its really just a stunt by a for-profit business and not a March-on-Washington style fight for civil rights but the PR team behind ManCrunch just woke up and found a several million dollars of free publicity in front of them. I have to hand it to them for thinking of it.
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