Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad Stirs Feminist Outrage
One football player will be making an appearance at the Super Bowl even though he is not playing for either team and has yet to sign an NFL contract. His name is Tim Tebow, former quarterback of the University of Florida.
The occasion of Tim Tebow’s appearance will be a thirty second ad purchased by the Pro Life group Focus on the Family. Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl ad will be a pro-life message crafted not so much as a political advocacy commercial as it is a personal, family
Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad Stirs Feminist Outrage
story. Tim Tebow will be appearing with his mother, Pam. According to the Washington Times:
“The Tebows are evangelical Christians who have served as missionaries in the Philippines on numerous occasions and founded the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association, which continues to evangelize in the Philippines, where Tim was born.
“During one of the mission trips, Mrs. Tebow came down with amoebic dysentery and slipped into a coma, requiring a treatment regimen that included strong antibiotics that can damage or kill an unborn child. When Mrs. Tebow learned she was pregnant, doctors advised her to abort the baby, whom she and her husband had prayed for and already named Timothy, she told the Gainesville, Fla., Sun in 2007.
“Tim Tebow grew up to be one of the greatest players in college football history — becoming the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy as the game’s best player, being nominated as a Heisman finalist two other times, and helping lead the Florida Gators to two national titles in his four years at the university.”
Generally networks are loath to air issue ads during the Super Bowl. A number of ads, proposed by organizations ranging from Moveon.Org to PETA, have been rejected in the past. The Focus on the Family ad was approved because it does not explicitly ask anyone to do anything; it simply tells the story of Tim Tebow and his mother and allows the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions.
The ad and the fact that CBS has approved it has angered some feminist groups. According to the New York Daily News, the Women’s Media Center was especially blunt. The Women’s Media Center stated about the Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad.
