From a CBS News piece which aired on The Evening News 1-30-04

(CBS) In the religion of advertising, the Super Bowl is a mecca, a nirvana for nachos and a bonanza for beer.

With 90 million viewers at stake, sometimes the competition between commercials is better than the competition on the field, but, as CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan reports, this year it's gotten nasty.

"I think it basically amounts to censorship."

CBS refused airtime to at least three Super Bowl hopefuls: the animal rights group PETA for one.

Turning down advertisers is nothing new. But this year one jilted suitor is turning up the heat.

"What's at the core of it is, where in the national discourse can you speak freely, and CBS is saying, not here," says Eli Pariser, Campaigns Director for MoveOn.org.

It's a short, pointed ad questioning President George W. Bush's budget policies. It depicts children wearily working adult jobs, and ends with this simple question: "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?"

CBS says the sponsor, an online activist group called MoveOn.org, crossed the line by attempting to use Super Bowl airtime as a platform for public debate: something CBS and other networks have banned for years.

"The network simply does not accept any advocacy advertising of any kind," says CBS Executive Vice President Martin Franks.

But CBS does plan to air anti-drug ads sponsored by the White House.

The difference?

"There isn't a group out there advocating drug abuse,"

In other words, stopping drug abuse is not controversial- so the White House spot isn't an advocacy ad. Still, some ad executives see the quandary.

"Let's put it like this, there were conspiracy theories after CBS cancelled the Reagan series, and this makes it very easy to ad to a conspiracy theory," says Ira Teinowitz, of Advertising Age.

Some Democrats wasted no time. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, used the Senate floor to poke CBS right in the eye.

"It's time for CBS to announce that the name of its network is the Conservative Broadcasting System," says Durbin.

Which set off the unthinkable - conservative talk radio defending their favorite target, the allegedly liberal media.

"CBS, I think, is right thinking in this. Probably the first time they've been right thinking in a long time," says Dan Patrick, KSEV Radio host.

In the end, the controversy over not airing the ad has given it lots of airtime. Maybe not 90 million viewers in one shot, but if the point was to convey a message; mission accomplished.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/30/eveningnews/main597065.shtml for the video

Well it looks like the media has achieved what it always wanted. The ads are more important than the stupid game. People are watching the ads instead of the game. They have been showing the ads on the freaking news all week long already!

And look at just who some of the sponsors are:

Levitra (Official NFL sponsor!)
Viagra
Some other penis pill which name I can’t remember
Propecia
Prilosec
Lipitor

It used to be the beer ads that depicted strong men getting hot chicks (the NFL viewers, yeah right!). WTF is up with all these penis ads. Are all NFL viewers fat, balding and impotent? Levitra is a freaking official sponsor, WTF was the NFL thinking?

-RANT-
I’m sick and tired of all the prescription drugs being shown on TV. They don’t even tell you what they are for!! “Ask your doctor today if the purple pill is right for you” WTF. There should be a law to make them tell you what the pill is for!!! In fact they shouldn’t show prescriptions on TV as your doctor knows what you need not YOU! This is why the US has such a healthcare problem! Billions are pissed into ads and to pay for it the drugs are 100 times for expensive than in Canada. Old people are forced to purchase US drugs in Canada because they can’t pay for them in the US with prices so high. Then the US government has the audacity to say that Canadian drugs aren’t safe and make it illegal to purchase drugs in Canada! WTF.
-RANT-