Pornhub Super Bowl Ad Rejected By CBS

Did CBS reject a G-rated Super Bowl ad featuring an elderly couple looking lovingly into one another’s eyes? That’s what Pornhub claims. According to a press-release issued by the erotic Web site, a CBS spokesperson replied to the Web site’s proposal with an email stating, “CBS Television Network Standards do not permit advertising related to pornography. Therefore we cannot accept your submission.”

But various media outlets are projecting Pornhub never intended to shell out the millions necessary for the ad to be aired during the Super Bowl, and created it as a publicity stunt. Super Bowl spots are sold in 30-second increments, and the Pornhub ad runs just 20 seconds. But promoting the ad as “banned” by the network would garner a good deal of free publicity. In fact, Pornhub has already created a Web site where users can vote on whether or not the ad should’ve been rejected. So far, 78 percent of viewers believe the network should have agreed to air the promotion.

It wouldn’t be the first time a rejected ad has given a company oodles of free advertising. Dating site “Big and Beautiful” claimed NBC rejected its scandalous 2012 ad featuring a plus-sized model, and adultery dating site Ashley Madison claimed its ads have also been banned by Super Bowl marketing teams.

“I remember one year when the networks wouldn’t allow one of the Bud Light spots in the game, so Bud actually released it online as, ‘the Super Bowl ad the networks wouldn’t let you see,’” Tanin Blumberg,an account director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and a Budweiser Super Bowl ad veteran, told Business Insider. “It was pretty smart … got about 1 million views on YouTube in just a few days.”