NBC refuses to air sexy PETA ad during Super Bowl

by Miranda Fitzgerald, marketingmagazine.co.uk 29-Jan-09, 10:20

LONDON - US TV network NBC has refused to show an ad from animal rights group PETA during this Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast because it says the spot is too sexually explicit.

The ad shows several scantily dressed women getting intimate with vegetables and carries the strapline ‘Studies show vegetarians have better sex'.

NBC's vice-president of advertising standards, Victoria Morgan, said that the ad depicted a level of sexuality exceeding the networks standards and gave a list of changes that would have to be made before it could be shown.

In response, PETA wrote on its website: [We're] pretty sure that most Super Bowl fans would find the ad a lot more appealing than the impotence and other not-so-sexy effects that a steady stream of chicken wings and burgers can have on their love lives'.

PETA has had a number of ads rejected by broadcasters, eight of which it displays on its website. Commentators have questioned whether PETA truely intended to buy ad timedur ing the Super Bowl, which costs about $3m for 30 seconds, or whether it was just an effective ruse to drive traffic to its site.