OUR VIEW: Focus on the Family ad keeps on giving (vote in poll)
The best publicity money cannot buy
The famous Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad, broadcast during the most-watched television show in history, is a boon to Colorado Springs.
Focus on the Family is what economic development specialists refer to as a “primary employer,” because it pays wages with money that comes into the community from other locations. Its payroll, unlike those of secondary employers, grows the economy. Additionally, Focus provides one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions -- the Focus on the Family Visitor’s Center – and the ad will drive more to visit and spend money here. What’s good for Focus on the Family is good for Colorado Springs.
The tasteful, pro-family, pro-love-of-life ad will only serve to revive this national ministry’s image – an image somewhat tainted in recent years by mission-creep. Focus, an organization known for providing constructive parenting information to millions of Americans, has earned itself disproportionate attention for involvement in state and national political issues that strayed a bit from the ministry’s original priorities. The ad may signal a restoration of focus for Focus.
The commercial, by itself, had little more substance than a beer ad. Anyone hoping for a bold, confrontational, anti-abortion message may have been disappointed. But the weeks of publicity about the ad, leading up to the Super Bowl, were quite literally priceless. Money cannot buy that level of attention.
Adding to the organization’s victory is the desperate and pathetic reaction of those who staged a futile effort to have CBS ban the ad. National Organization for Women President Terry O’Neil, among other Focus opponents, said the commercial promoted domestic violence against women. Really? It featured Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow playfully tackling his mother – right after she explained how tough she is because of life’s challenges. She is so tough that her son’s roughhousing didn’t faze her. She popped up, while he was still on the ground.
"I am blown away at the celebration of the violence against women in it," O’Neil told the Los Angeles Times. "That's what comes across to me even more strongly than the anti-abortion message. I myself am a survivor of domestic violence, and I don't find it charming. I think CBS should be ashamed of itself.”
No, O’Neil should be ashamed. Domestic abuse of women is painful and tragic. Activists should not exploit the topic for the convenience of indulging nonsensical polemics. To equate a playful, lighthearted scene with genuine violence only mocks the suffering of women harmed by angry aggression.
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Other abortion rights advocates were even more irresponsible in their desperation to malign Focus on the Family’s advertising coup. Abortion rights advocate Amanda Marcotte wrote this for her Twitter followers: “Hey Mom! Tried to kill you from the womb and failed. How about a blind side tackle? Violence against moms.”
Get real.
The problem with this strategy, of course, is the fact most Americans are intelligent and sane. They aren’t about to confuse a charming, playful ad -- one that featured love between a mother and a son -- with evil. The critics sound so irrational, so on the prowl for a fight, they may drive average Americans to embrace an organization they seldom thought about.
If rabid opponents of Focus on the Family want to help the ministry’s cause, they will keep talking. For Focus, this 33-second ad just keeps giving. -- Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor, for the editorial board
