After all the controversy swirling around CBS accepting a pro-life Super Bowl ad featuring Tim Tebow, people were wondering: would the network wade further into controversy, and accept an ad from a gay dating service?
Now, we have the answer. And it’s no.
From CNN:
Super Bowl network CBS rejected an ad Friday from ManCrunch.com, a gay dating Web site.
“After reviewing the ad, which is entirely commercial in nature, our standards and practices department decided not to accept this particular spot,” said CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs. “We are always open to working with a client on alternative submissions.”
CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) said it turned down the ad partly for financial reasons, but ManCrunch believes that there’s more to it than that.
“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.”
The letter also states that the CBS sales department “has had difficulty verifying [ManCrunch’s] credit status.”
So what, exactly, did CBS reject?