Tebow Superbowl Ad…So…What’s the Point?
I missed it during the Superbowl, so I just watched the Tim and Pam Tebow commercial produced by Focus on the Family online and came away with…“what was all the fuss about”?
I missed it during the Superbowl, so I just watched the Tim and Pam Tebow commercial produced by Focus on the Family online and came away with…“what was all the fuss about”?
The commercial, a simple white set, with mom of college Florida football phenom, Tim Tebow, was sweet, with an “I love my little boy – he almost didn’t make it” tone, and an added (and, to me, awkward) humor moment where Tim tackles his mom. She springs back up, because the message is that she’s tougher than he is and still worries about him. No overt “pro-life” messages; definitely no venomous response to pro-abortion organizations; not even a mention of the phrase, “we chose life.” The hype in the days leading up to the commercial’s airing far eclipsed the actual spot. I’m guessing the point was to drive people to the Focus on the Family website, which included a long interview with the Tebow parents that is much more poignant and gives a lot of deliberate details that I’m guessing that organizations like the National Organization for Women (NOW) had in their cross-hairs.
I read an LA Times article that chronicled NOW president Terry O’Neill’s response to the ad. She indicated that the commercial (because of the Tebow tackle) had an undercurrent of violence against women (I wonder if she mentions the Betty White Snickers commercial, too?). The most disturbing quotation in my opinion, came from Women’s Media Center president, Jehmu Greene: "I think [Focus on the Family is] attempting to use humor as another tactic of hiding their message and fooling the American people."
Really? Sorry, I don’t buy that.
So what was the point of the Focus on the Family ad? It spurred discussion that, I think, exposed pro "choice" extremists as hypocrites because they really didn’t seem to be advocating ‘choice’ at all, but the forwarding of their own agenda, to the exclusion of anyone else’s – including, ironically, the choices of other women. And there were some non-conservative voices that came to the fore in making exactly that point – which I think is great.
But, at the same time, can I just say I’m a little disappointed? There was SO MUCH to-do made on both sides (how many people joined a Facebook group supporting the Tebow spot?) about a commercial that no one had yet seen. It built anticipation for a commercial that ended up being pretty, well, ho-hum. I don’t think it’s wrong to expect Focus on the Family to bring its A-game in production along with a $2.5 million-to-air-on-Superbowl-Sunday commercial, especially for such an important message.
But, at the end of the day, I don’t really expect television/media, or commercials, to be the vanguard of Christian values.
I hope this ad will touch a life; save a life. I’m skeptical, too, since it just seemed to be fodder for people with already defined beliefs to dig in their heels and yell over the battleground of women and children.
But enough about what I think – what do you think of the ad? What was it’s purpose, and did it fulfill that purpose?
Sharifa Stevens
Sharifa Stevens is a Manhattan-born, Bronx-raised child of the King, born to Jamaican immigrants, and currently living in Dallas. Sharifa's been singing since she was born. Her passion is to serve God's kingdom by leading His people in worship through music, speaking and writing, and relationships with people. Her heart is also unity, inspired by John. Sharifa hates exercise but likes Chipotle, bagels with a schmeer and lox, salmon sushi, chicken tikka, curried goat (yeah, it's good) with rice and peas, and chocolate lava cakes. She's been happily married to Jonathan since 2006...and he buys her Chipotle.
3 Comments
Jackie
Great blog once again,
Great blog once again, Sharifa. The spot was lack luster — not memorable at all. I never understood the big to do about it in the first place — I think the big to do was all apart of the marketing campaign as well.
Even if this advertisement was screaming at the top of its lungs to end abortion, to "choose life" — there would have been nothing wrong with that either (not for me and I support a woman’s right to choose — though I do struggle with the larger moral implications of abortion, I do not see it as the government place to tell a woman what to do with her body).
As someone who worked for a women’s organization right out of college, I have to say that sometimes people get caught up in defending their viewpoint to the point of insanity. Truly. One side of the debate cannot give an inch to the other even when it is warranted. I remember when a doctor was attempting to abort a full term baby 11 years ago, but he then had to deliver the baby after he realized the error, and I was incredibly upset by the doctor’s extreme negligence. Now, the organization I worked for didn’t want to deal with the implication of it, because they feared if you give someone an inch women’s reproductive rights will be abolished.
Does anyone want to have honest conversations about any issue, how to solve some of the many problems that plague us — or will we continue to represent sides and solve absolutely nothing?
Anonymous
Tebow Ad
Having known two women with unplanned pregnancies at either end of the spectrum–one who chose life and one who chose to end a life–I find myself perhaps a bit more uptight on the issue than I might otherwise have been. The fallout from their respective decisions is nothing short of remarkable. In that light, I tend to come from the standpoint of “don’t waste time with subtle messages–get to the point”. The point was and is–I think–that life is far better a choice than death. So I would only ask FoF to drop the velvet and pick up the hammer. You have a very expensive 30 seconds or so to make your point so make it. No one–friend or foe–expects FoF to be less than direct. If you threaten to bring a gun to a knife fight, bring the gun and for goodness sake, use it.
Angela
More than just one issue
I don’t know if I’m the only one who sees it this way, but I felt like the whole point of the ad wasn’t about stopping women from having an abortion. Not that it’s outside the realm of possibility that someone could change their mind, I just don’t thing that’s what they were trying to do with the commercial. The first thing I noticed when I went to the Focus on the Family website wasn’t the the Tebow video link. It was everything else on the page, all that Focus on the Family is about (or tries to be, I think). There were links just below the Tebow video about help with addiction, struggling marriages, surviving an affair and some other things that I don’t remember. Their self-proclaimed goal is to “help families thrive”, not simply to see an end to abortion in the United States. I think Focus on the Family saw this as an opportunity to draw people to their ministry who otherwise might not even know it exists. The story the Tebows have to tell happens to be about not ending a troubled pregnancy, so that’s the story they told. Ultimately, I think the goal was for people to come to the website and see that Focus on the Family isn’t just some anti-abortion political group. It’s actually a ministry with a purpose whose scope reaches far beyond unplanned pregnancy.
I’m not saying I thought the ad was brilliant or anything, but it did buy Focus on the Family millions of dollars more of free press beyond the $2.5 million paid for the air time. The most popular google search during the Super Bowl: Focus on the Family.