Ford Pulls Lu****l Super Bowl Car Ad

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday yanked a planned Super Bowl advertisement that depicts a clergyman tempted by a new pickup truck after some victims of clergy sex abuse complained it made light of their trauma.

The company wants to keep the focus on its new truck model rather than any controversy, said Sara Tatchio, spokeswoman for Ford's Lincoln division.

The ad shows a set of car keys placed on a collection plate. The clergyman finds a new Lincoln Mark LT truck in the parking lot, and lovingly caresses the exterior.

The car's owner then enters the picture, with his little girl poking her head from behind him — the implication being she had dropped the keys in the plate. The clergyman hands over the keys, then is depicted adding the letters L-T to a message board advertisting an upcoming sermon, to spell lust.

The Chicago-based Survivors Networks of those Abused by Priests believed the little girl's presence in the ad with the clergyman and word "lust" had sexual overtones and that Lincoln was playing off the news of religious sex scandals to sell cars.

The survivors' group urged Ford to pull the ad and, within hours of their complaint, the company obliged.

"We're grateful for their prompt response," said Barbara Blaine, SNAP's president. "It shows their compassion and I think will spare lots of people a great deal of pain."

Tatchio said Lincoln had conducted consumer testing of the ad and had no trouble. The company also made certain the clergyman depicted could not be confused for a Catholic priest.

Before Ford made the decision not to run the ad, Tatchio suggested that because of their experiences, the critics were seeing things in the ad that weren't there.

"While we think it was a very unfortunate misunderstanding and were frankly surp The clergyman finds a new Lincoln Mark LT truck in the parking lot, and lovingly caresses the exterior.

The car's owner then enters the picture, with his little girl poking her head from behind him — the implication being she had dropped the keys in the plate. The clergyman hands over the keys, then is depicted adding the letters L-T to a message board advertisting an upcoming sermon, to spell lust.

The Chicago-based Survivors Networks of those Abused by Priests believed the little girl's presence in the ad with the clergyman and word "lust" had sexual overtones and that Lincoln was playing off the news of religious sex scandals to sell cars.

The survivors' group urged Ford to pull the ad and, within hours of their complaint, the company obliged.

"We're grateful for their prompt response," said Barbara Blaine, SNAP's president. "It shows their compassion and I think will spare lots of people a great deal of pain."

Tatchio said Lincoln had conducted consumer testing of the ad and had no trouble. The company also made certain the clergyman depicted could not be confused for a Catholic priest.

Before Ford made the decision not to run the ad, Tatchio suggested that because of their experiences, the critics were seeing things in the ad that weren't there.

"While we think it was a very unfortunate misunderstanding and were frankly surprised by the reaction of this one group, in the end" Ford decided it was more important to keep the focus on the truck, she said.

Lincoln hasn't decided whether the ad will run elsewhere. It wasn't cheap to produce: the company hired "The Cell" director Tarsem Singh to make the ad. Singer Cassandra Wilson and well-known producer Don Was recorded a version of the Billie Holiday song "Guilty" specifically for the background music.

It's also unclear whether Ford will use the space it reserved on the Super Bowl telecast for another ad, or seek a refund. Fox has been charging $2.4 million for 30-second ads on Sunday's Super Bowl telecast.

The ad was to launch an entire advertising campaign for the Mark LT, which will be available in Lincoln showrooms later this month.

 

Sheesh This has gone too far.
I suppose some people might be offended by the cheerleaders or the fact that an announcer might say "score". That could be construed as a sexual reference.

I really hope that Paul McCartney drops his pants and waves his **** around during the halftime show.

That would show them

 

Damn that's funny! When I read that my coffee damn near came out my nose!

 

Seen a interview with Paul McCartney and he swore there will be no Wardrobe malfunctions in his show because they we're going to perform in the Nude

 

Will “politically correct” ever end? I’m about fed up with it.

 

thats just how bad the world we live in has got. people sue you over the dumbest things and all this stuff about offending people and so on. it makes you think soemtimes if the country really is the "Home of the free" anymore. i am a member of the free and accepted masons and most town you go into have a something up with signs that show what organizations are in their town like the free and accepted masons. well our lodge will not put the sign up anymore because they are affraid someone might run off the road, hit it and sue them.

its a really sad world we live in today. i dont have anykids right now and sometimes i look at how things are and wonder if i would really want to bring a kid into the world because of how it is. i dont think i could do that to a child.

 

You ain't the only one.

 

Oh, my sides! I got tears running down my cheeks from laughing so hard!!


I've got two daughters, 2 and 5 years old. Sometimes I think how far political correctness will go when they're as old as my wife and I. But my wife and I did want to have kids regardless of political and societal events in the world. I'm not letting fanatical fundamentalists or corrupt politicians effect how I want to live my life. Sure, in the back of my mind there's that thought of 'what if', maybe that's why my house is built completely out of concrete (no really, it is).

 

That's why we have dogs.

well, that, and you can lock them in a closet and beat them, and not have to worry about them telling their teacher...

 

It's really too bad, that would have been a great ad...plus think of the follow-up ads that Ford could run;

*Michael Jackson going to bed with a regular cab, short bed Ranger.

*OJ slitting the tires of his Titan with a knife.

*Lorraina Bobbit taking a sawzall to the exhaust tip of her Dodge hemi.

*Martha Stewart getting some 'advance information' from a salesman about the '06 F 150's.

BTW English Adam...I like your sence of humor.

MR

 

It's all about getting paid or getting out of trouble.




Adam - That was great.

 

I've seen the commercial and agree with it getting pulled.

 

I'd like to return the compliment. I especially like the Jacko line
It would work with a Tonka Toy as well.

Sadly, I don't forsee Macca doing anything outrageous at halftime.

They should have gone for my other Homie - Ozzy