Super Bowl Commercials 2012: Political Ads Should Be Kept out of NFL Holiday

Everyone loves Super Bowl commercials. We get funny beer ads, talking animals or babies and Betty White getting tackled in a Snickers spot.

This year, you can add dismembered fetuses to the list.

Angela Michael, a candidate for Congress in Illinois' 15th District, and Randall Terry, a presidential candidate, each intend to run anti-abortion Super Bowl ads that reportedly feature graphic, dismembered fetuses.

And frankly, they—and everyone else—should keep their political views to themselves during my football holiday. The last thing I want on a fun day of football, friends and chicken wings is a political debate.

I have 364 other days in the year for that.

Generally speaking, advocacy ads have been rejected during the Super Bowl. But as politicians during an election year, Michael and Terry found a loophole. From Brian Brueggemann of BND.com:

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Being a congressional candidate will allow her to run campaign advertisements that the media might otherwise refuse to run. Federal Communications Commission rules require broadcasters to accept any advertisements from congressional candidates, as long as the ads are paid for, and they're within a certain window of time before an election, and they don't make libelous claims against another candidate.

The advertising tactic has been used a few times in the past by other anti-abortion activists, but this year there's more of a concerted effort to take advantage of the FCC rules, according to Randall Terry, founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.

"

So yeah, Michael and Terry have a right to do what they are doing. And they'll certainly draw enough attention to their cause as the Super Bowl nears—remember the stink about the Tebows and Focus on the Family before the Super Bowl two years ago?

And that ad wasn't even controversial once it aired. These will be.

But the ads themselves, or the message they're trying to send isn't my issue with what they're doing. We all have a right to our views.

My issue is that they should keep the political posturing out of the Super Bowl.

Let me enjoy my non-partisan, football holiday with friends and family. Don't air an ad that is sure to spark debate in the room, or worse, create a mad scramble for politicians to use the platform of the Super Bowl to air an agenda every time they are eligible to do so.

That's my main concern—that the Super Bowl will become a high-profile means to plant an agenda flag.

That's why I wish Michael and Terry would reconsider what they're doing. I know they probably don't care about the weird sanctity I've given to Super Bowl Sunday. I know in their minds, riling up people to spread a message they feel needs to be made is the ultimate goal.

I would only ask them to consider the precedent they are setting if they go forward with their ads.

For the next few months, we're going to be inundated with automated calls, our lawns being overtaken by campaign signs and enough accusatory remarks between politicians to fill 10 seasons of The Jersey Shore.

For one day—one beautiful, pigskin-oriented day—can't we just take a break from the politics?

Hit me up on the Twitter—my tweets are FDA approved.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/17/2594334/dismembered-fetuses-in-super-bowl.html#storylink=cp