CARNAL NATION

An ad during the Super Bowl has always been an expensive venture. The cost to run one 30-second spot during the South Florida-hosted event is $2.5 million, down a cool half-mil from last year's price. It's certainly worth the high costs, especially when the lineup of ads gets press weeks before the game. The interwebs have been abuzz with the purported stripping lesbians slated to appear in the GoDaddy ads and this week it's a Christians vs. women battle that's got everyone in a tizzy.

Anti-choice Christian organization Focus on the Family has purchased 30 seconds worth of Super Bowl air time and plans to run a spot starring Tim Tebow and his mom. It's a safe bet the ad won't be for beer.

A national coalition of women's groups, including the National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority, asked that CBS not run the controversial commercial. "An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year—an event designed to bring Americans together," said Jehmu Greene, president of the New York-based Women's Media Center coordinating the protest.

The former University of Florida Gators quarterback and 2007 Heisman Trophy winner was almost aborted. That's the story his mother will be sharing: when she became ill during a religious mission to the Philippines in 1987, a doctor recommended she terminate her fifth pregnancy. She purportedly refused and biblical verse-sportin' Tim was the result. Their heartwarming saga is a perfect fit for the “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life”-themed message slated to be delivered between downs, paid for by Focus on the Family. 

Whether or not you believe anti-abortion (or "pro-life") messages should be served up during an internationally televised sporting event, it's an interesting side note that the controversy extends beyond the ad to the facts of the story itself. Salon reported  that the Center for Reproductive Rights, in their protest of the upcoming commercial, let CBS know in no uncertain terms that abortion not only is, but has always been, illegal in the Philippines, even if the mother's life is in jeopardy. While Wikipedia supports the Tebow's version of the story, the reference site's facts are created by readers' input, thereby calling those facts into doubt.

Adding comic fuel to the fire, the Upright Citizens Brigade has created a parody that combines Tebow's “pro-fetus” message and standard Super Bowl snack ad fare in their “Tebow Doritos Super Bowl Ad,” currently enjoying “up buzzes” and “retweets” courtesy of Huffington Post.

We'll be curious to see what sort of impact such a blatantly political message will have sandwiched between shimmying midriffs, beer-hauling Clydesdales and other “Americana.”