Pigs Don't Fly On CBS or Fox

Controversy and hypocrisy have surrounded a new ad from condom manufacturer Church & Dwight Company. Television stations in Pittsburgh are steadfastly refusing to show a commercial for Trojan condoms, while stations in Seattle are giving it the green light.




When Trojan introduced the ad last month, it was rejected as national advertising by both CBS and Fox. Fox said it objected to the message that condoms can prevent pregnancy, while CBS said it was not “appropriate,” drawing a firestorm of criticism from public health advocates and bloggers. But in Pittsburgh (as the New York Times reports), the local affiliates for ABC and NBC (two networks that had agreed to run the ad nationally) also snubbed it.

In the commercial, women in a bar are find themselves sitting next to pigs, one of which metamorphoses into a handsome suitor after it procures a condom from a vending machine. The tag line: “Evolve. Use a condom every time.”

“The spot was pretty clever, but not one that we thought was appropriate for the market,” said Ray Carter, general manager of WPXI, the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh ABC affiliate, WTAE, also commented in a written statement, saying, “WTAE will not accept or air advertising for Trojan or any other advertiser in the category.” Seattle, by contrast, put out the welcome mat for the company: every station it approached, even affiliates for the two networks that rejected the ad — CBS and Fox — agreed to broadcast it.

Jim Daniels, vice president for marketing at Trojan, said he saw hypocrisy in networks accepting ads for products aimed at conditions like erectile dysfunction and herpes, but rejecting condom ads. “One of my hopes is that we see the networks’ standards evolve to be more practical and fair,” he said. According to a 2001 survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 71 percent of Americans believe that condom advertising should be allowed on television, more than those who approve of televised ads for beer (64 percent) or hard liquor (51 percent).

On “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox, Bill O’Reilly argued the ad was inappropriate to show on television — after he broadcast the ad nearly in its entirety. “Next year, it’s estimated that four million people in this country will get a sexually transmitted infection,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, in a telephone interview. “The fact that Fox and CBS want to sell sex on TV and yet they don’t want to run ads about prevention is disgraceful.”

Dan Savage, who writes the syndicated sex column “Savage Love” and blogged about the Trojan situation, said in an interview from Seattle: “I’m offended by the reality that television is so hypersexualized and glorifies sexual excess and promiscuity, and then runs screaming into the megachurch and drops to its knees when someone wants to run an advertisement that urges people to be responsible about their sexual expression.”