Sure, 92 million people heard Pam Tebow. But did she SAY anything?

(See? What did I tell you...)

I wasn't going to blog about the Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad, because that was, like, a long time ago. But today I came across this article, and I felt this made it "relevant" enough that I could beat the dead horse.

I watched the Tebow ad. I was going to watch it anyway (that whole "keep your enemies closer" thing), but even if I had planned to leave the room when it aired, I still would have watched it. Because I had no idea that's what the ad was.

I don't know what Pam Tebow looks like. Put her in a line-up of two women, both with short, black, curly/wavy hair, and I can't pick her out if you tell me which one is not her. So of course I didn't recognize her face when she came on the screen.

Honestly, I thought the ad was a spoof of the FotF ad. I thought it was a woman making fun of what FotF was going to say.

And given what she said, I swore it was a health care reform ad. Even when Timmy himself showed up (see, I knew it was him because he tackled her, and that's what football players do) I still didn't get it. It still sounded like an health care reform ad -- all Ms. Tebow talked about was his health and how worried she still is about his health. How could that NOT be an ad for health care reform, and health care access for all?

Okay, so that's what I wanted to say about the ad. Unless you knew, before hand, that the ad was supposed to be an anti-abortion ad, you would never have known that's what it was. If nothing else, because the only thing about the ad that stuck in your mind was Pam Tebow being tackled to the ground by a guy a foot taller than she and probably 100 pounds heavier.

Now, this article says although the ad ranked dead last in Nielsen ratings, the ad was still a success because even if you were the lowest-ranking ad in the Super Bowl, you were still in the Super Bowl. And all these millions of people saw your ad.

Which would be a valid point, if the message you gave in the ad said what you originally wanted it to say.

Sure, 92 million people saw your message. But did they get it? Did they know what you were trying to say? (Besides "tackle your mom." And, dude, while I'm harping on that... don't quarterbacks throw more than they tackle? Couldn't we have had Timmy tell him mom to "Go long!" and toss her a football, or -- not to get too radical here -- a teddy bear or other baby item? That way, we get the football reference, without the violence against women. Just sayin'.)

I do agree that the hype before the ad aired gave Focus on the Family the attention they wanted. Bully for them. But how much hype was there outside the pro-choice community? Outside the anti-choice community? Did your Average Joe and Jane hear about it?

Or did they just see your health care reform ad and stand there, scratching their heads?

I'm too lazy to do the research, and I don't want to give FotF any more of my time, to look into it, but... was that the original ad? Was that what they were originally going to say?

Because that's not what was reported they were going to say. And they never released the script (did they?) So did they water down the ad because of the outrage?


Or did they truly spend "less than $100,000" to produce and $2.8 to air an ad that said... nothing? If you're going to spend that kind of money, shouldn't you make sure your message is as clear as it can possibly be?

Then again, I've never understood the anti-choice mentality. Maybe they are that clueless, and they do think this ad was a "success."