We’ll not pretend TV networks have a conscience any more than we might assume a 13-year-old is actually “sorry,” or that he won’t go for a joyride in the new car while you’re sleeping without the weighty parental finger threatening near-death if he does.
So when CBS turns down a $50 million Super Bowl ad offer from Booble.com, all we can really assume is that they still remember the sting of inadvertent (and pierced) momentary frontage.
But we will offer a courteous suspension of disbelief when bloggers appear to have only heard of the adult-oriented search engine because of a trademark dustup with Google a few years back. That’s cute, guys. And yes, Booble’s still around, and apparently has enough users to make an obscenely ostentatious play for the Super Bowl audience.
At $2.6 million per half-minute, $50 million is enough for almost 20 minutes of bad influence.
But CBS won’t have it, no way, not-for-nuthin, the Parents’ Television Council will be all over them, gleefully recording the naughty goings on everywhere on the boob tube and storing them on the Web where other outraged parents can view them and complain to the FCC in complete detail about the dirty, dirty human condition flauntingly displayed in plain sight rather than beneath ankle-length skirts. Ahem.
Anyway, “the Eye never called us back,” says Booble founder Bob Smart, who also insists the ad was tamer than anything GoDaddy.com has put forward. The ad portrayed a woman catching her husband in the clandestine (and rare, of course) act of seeking out adult material online.
Until Booble, GoDaddy was the quintessential decency antagonist, transitioning repeatedly rejected spots into a viral promotional material at the site.
Perhaps getting rejected is nearly as valuable as actually paying for the spot. Rejection, and not the material, clearly, piques interest, right? Or maybe, the attention they receive from the throngs (well, gang) of protestors pointing to the questionable content is worth more than the ridiculous monetary offers.
Just ask this New Orleans fan. Without the stink caused by a taboo-rific tee shirt, unfortunately worded for the more sensitive types and aired full-on by Fox, she might have fallen into relative obscurity.
Now, instead of a fleeting moment over the airwaves that causes red faces in the living room, kids can turn to YouTube to watch it over and over again in relative peace. And if it weren’t for the PTC, you might not even have known about it.
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