Thursday, January 28, 2010

I'm Not Believing This

The Superbowl is coming. That means Superbowl ads -- those brief encounters with products that we probably neither want or need shown during one of the most popular sporting events of the year. This means that if you are watching the game with your 8 year old son, he gets to see who knows what (remember Janet's "wardrobe malfunction????).

I just received an email advising me how to watch the ads and talk about them with my kids.

One paragraph discusses why kids shouldn't see the Budweiser commercials (quote -- alcohol messaging needs to be managed with kids), junk food ads, movie ads (one is Disney) and an EA sports ad (which might be Madden Football but may be something else). One paragraph.

The next paragraph tells how and why you need to "ad manage" the Focus on the Family/Tebow pro-life spot.

What you believe is up to you. But the issues of pro-life or pro-choice are complicated moral questions that aren't age-appropriate for young children who may not even know about the birds and the bees yet.


Frankly, this I agree with. However, I also know that I can talk to my 5 year old about abortion without telling her about the birds and bees, yet.

The timing of when to initiate a discussion of the issues surrounding this hot-button subject should belong to individual families, not to a broadcaster.


Heck yea. And you know what else goes in this category? Alcohol, sex (ever tried to explain a Trojan or viagra commercial to your 5 year old), feminine products (do you HAVE to show how much liquid it will hold). Frankly, I would much rather have a discussion with my 5 or 8 year old about abortion, and the moral implications, etc. than those other things because abortion is an issue. (and for the record, based on what I've investigated, the word abortion is never used leading critics to say it is a "veiled" message.).

The article makes some excellent points. But, they should be things that parents should do anyway. Unfortunately, my short time on earth has shown me that common sense is anything but common.

My opinion?
While I'm not a big FoF fan, I believe that the main opposition to this is that Tim's mom was told to abort her baby because of multiple/severe health problems, but she chose to have him. Obviously, as one of the premier young quarterbacks in the country, the doctors were wrong. And THAT is something I've found that pro-abortion folks don't won't others to know.



/rant over.



http://www.commonsensemedia.org/watching-super-bowl-2010-ads-whats-age-appropriate

3 comments:

Bill (cycleguy) said...

I'm agreeing with you on this Karma. parents ought to be having "discussions" with their children as they grow up and not just when the "emergency situation" arises. I won't be watching the SB (I could care less actually) but it has been interesting seeing the reaction to the ad. The liberal media is having a cow trying to get rid of it and all because it doesn't fit their agenda. Personally, I suspect tim's mom and Tim are glad that she chose to keep him. Hmmm there is that word choice (just not to their liking).

Bernard Shuford said...

Curious thing is that now CBS is in a pickle because a homosexual group wants to run an ad and CBS has said as long as an ad is well produced, they'll air it. But they don't want to run this one, apparently. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2010/01/gay-kissing-super-bowl-ad-tim-tebow/1

It's always complicated.

Karma Shuford said...

We won't be watching it either, actually. Well, we can't because we don't have a TV.