Super Bowl final advertising is big business in the States, and has not been shy of a little controversy either in the last few years. In their review of advertisements for this years Super Bowl final, Fox Sports has rejected a Christian group’s application to flight a commercial featuring the Bible verse John 3:16. This is because The Fixed Point Foundation’s “Lookup 316 commercial” was deemed as containing too much “religious doctrine,” said FOX.
"[The commercial] was deemed to be too offensive," confirmed Larry Taunton, executive director of Fixed Point Foundation, in an interview with The Christian Post.
However, Taunton strongly disagrees with Fox’s assertion. He describes the advert as beginning with a living room scene of men and women watching a football game. They all cheer at something that occurs on the screen, although you are not shown what. The camera then zooms in on a football player with John 3:16 written on his eye black. One of the fans watching the game asks his neighbor what John 3:16 means and the neighbor shrugs. A fan reaches for his cell phone and says, "I'll look it up." Then the commercial ends.
The advert does not actually feature anything from the Bible other than that verse, nor does it show a preacher or a sermon. It just asks people to look up John 3.16, which is why Taunton cannot understand its rejection.
"It' doesn't sell a product. It doesn't give out the Fixed Point website," argued Taunton. “It simply links to the Lookup 316 website where there is an explanation of the verse's meaning.”
The rejection of this 31-second ad comes despite the fact that the Super Bowl has often allowed quite racy ads to flight. The most famous of these was probably the 2007 “Snicker’s Kiss” ad which showed two men end up kissing after eating a Snickers chocolate bar from opposite ends. The commercial was canned only after public complaints.
"That's deemed OK. [But the 3:16 commercial] is deemed controversial," Taunton said.
Taunton refuses to give up the issue, however, and plans to try again next Super Bowl.