Web Rescues Un-Aired Super Bowl Ads

destinyland writes "A pirated version of Budweiser's un-aired Super Bowl ad appeared on YouTube — proving the Web is more democratic than NBC. The sexy PETA ad they refused to air also turned up on PETA's site; YouTube also had Saturday's skit from SNL, mocking the actual Pepsi ad that would air Sunday. But ironically, the Web site for Jack in the Box crashed right after they'd aired their cliffhanger about Jack's bus accident, prompting one critic to joke, 'Should we assume he's dead?'

Comments

Counter-intuitive

[SpanishInquisition0]

Watching PETA ads doesn't make me wanna become vegan. In fact, seeing those naked women just make me want to eat some meat, if you catch my drift.

Re:Counter-intuitive

[cbiltcliffe]

It doesn't make me want to become vegetarian or vegan, either.
It pisses me off at PETA, due to all the lies and misleading studies that they tout in their ads, as well as the implication that one sorry-assed psycho beating a duck to death is how they're all killed for meat.

Having grown up and lived on a mixed farm for 20+ years, I think I can safely say that beating an animal to death would pretty much ruin any meat in it. Especially something as small as a duck.

So, in conclusion:

1. PETA is a shady political group with an agenda.
2. We (or at least I) hate politics.
3. I hate PETA.
4. Eat meat.
5. ???
6. Profit!!

Re:Counter-intuitive

[CastrTroy]

I think PETA has it's tactics all wrong. Instead of trying to get everybody to stop eating meat, cold turkey (bad pun), they really should be trying to get people to eat less meat. I've switched over to eating less meat in the past year or so, and I have to say, I enjoy eating a lot more than I used to. Now that I'm buying less meat, I can get better cuts, from more humane sources, and I've also lost quite a bit of extra weight. I don't think I'd ever go off meat completely, but cutting down on meat so that you only eat it 3-4 times a week is probably a viable alternative that a lot of people could live with. Instead of getting people to go completely vegan, try to get everybody to eat vegetarian at least a couple times a week. It's a much more obtainable goal.

Re:Counter-intuitive

[dkleinsc]

PETA has so many problems with its tactics that you'd think they were sponsored by the American Beef Council.

The thing that surprises people the most about vegetarian (although not vegan) diets is that the food they can eat is relatively normal: cheese pizza instead of pepperoni, bagels rather than bacon, bean burritos rather than beef, etc. And you're absolutely right that reducing meat has significant benefits.

Re:Counter-intuitive

[Rutefoot]

Vegans will point to 'statistics' that vegetarians and vegans are healthier than the average person.

You are the example of why their 'statistics' are misleading and biased. Most people don't give a shit about what they eat. So how is comparing that group of people to vegetarians/vegans (who put at least a little thought into their diet) fair? They're not unhealthy because they eat meat, they are unhealthy because they don't give a shit.

CastrTroy is the example of the right thing to do. Studies that are more in depth than the ones trying to promote their agenda have all shown that eating some meat (as part of a balanced diet) is healthier than eating no meat.

Re:Counter-intuitive

[sitarah]

"PETA is a shady political group with an agenda."

They're shady alright. I am pretty bothered by how they react to people wearing fur. Throwing flour and paint and other things is simply unacceptable. It's a stretch to call it assault, but it is still invading your personal space in an effort to force you to comply with their ideas of good behavior.

I have a right to choose to wear fur. It's not illegal. You also have the right to disagree with my choice. You do not have the right to terrorize me into agreeing with you. You do not have the right to make me afraid to go somewhere in a fur coat just because we do not agree. But I guess the rights of people they dislike (evil, awful animal-killers!) don't count.

That said, I don't have a fur coat, and I do like animals, and I was a vegetarian for awhile. I just really have a problem with PETA in particular because of those tactics.

Re:Counter-intuitive

[cbiltcliffe]

And you have pigshit for brains, but you don't hear me complaining.

But seriously...farmers pollute the environment? What kind of crap propaganda have you been reading?
Polluting the environment you're trying to live from isn't exactly productive, and if you were to do so, your productivity, and therefore your income would drop significantly.

Farmers run tractors substantially for only a few weeks out of the year. You probably drive a car to work 5 days a week, for 50 or so weeks a year.

Farmers have manure to deal with, but 200 years ago, North America was full of bison and buffalo that were shitting all over the place, and we didn't have pollution problems.

I have to pick up the crap my dog leaves when I take him for a walk, under the guise of preventing pollution, but the fact that there are at least a dozen deer in the same woodlot in my city, who crap all over it every day, doesn't seem to have entered into the minds of people like you.

And as far as them being a throwback to a age best left in the past (Nice grammar by the way), it really takes a shortsighted twit to believe that anything remotely resembling a modern society could function without farmers.
If there were no farmers, everybody would have other jobs, but there'd be no food.
So everybody would have to grow their own food, which would mean little time to do other jobs, and all of a sudden, everybody's a farmer again.

You're an idiot.

Pirated

[Jurily]

Do we really have to use this word? It's not like they're going to be upset about getting poeole to view their ad.

Re:Pirated

[sakdoctor]

Did the industries scheme to demonize copyright infringement backfire?
If they scream piracy at everything, then the word piracy will dilute until it doesn't really mean anything.

This might already have happened.

Re:Pirated

[Jurily]

Did the industries scheme to demonize copyright infringement backfire?
If they scream piracy at everything, then the word piracy will dilute until it doesn't really mean anything.

This might already have happened.

Good. Then I'm going to the fridge to pirate myself something to eat.

Re:Pirated

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

The ONLY people upset about piracy is the middlemen that only make money by not actually doing anything of value. They see they are obsolete and are panicking.

That's not true! I'm a uni student who's reasonably poor, and has nothing to do with any artistic industry, thanks to my lack of talent. As someone who enjoys copyrighted music, movies, games, and other software (including GPL'd software) and who researches using copyrighted scientific papers, I care about piracy. I don't want to have to bear the costs of pirates who sap money from the respective industries, who will then pass the costs on to me. I don't want to have to fight for my rights, including my right to privacy, against the RIAA and MPAA every year, as they push for greater and greater restrictions. I don't want to trash copyright and hope that something better exists, and that it'll come along and save our culture.

Thanks, Slashdot!

[Goaway]

Thanks for these very important updates on how we should be manipulated! I was kind of feeling like I was thinking a bit too much on own, but finally I get some more ads to dull the senses and reinforce that conformity!

I'm in Canada...the web is the only way for us

[Anonymous Coward]

Not too many Americans know this, but even though we get the Superbowl in Canada, the CRTC (our version of the FCC) allows broadcasters and cable companies to substitute their own commercials during the broadcast. (Yes, we get the Spokane NBC feed on our cable, but we get substituted Canadian ads!) This has been going on for years. So when the USA sees the most AMAZING KEWL Superbowl ad, most Canadians see an add for "Joe's plumbing and lighting"

The Web is the only way for most of us to see the Superbowl ads.

Re:I'm in Canada...the web is the only way for us

[0100010001010011]

The USA does that too, sort of. I think it's around half time they let the 'locals' air what ever ads they want. Which is a good thing, because it lead to the best superbowl ad I've ever seen.

That tops anything the big companies put on, if not just for the "WTF did I just see" factor.

This is what the civilised world finds bizarre...

[Simon Brooke]

See, this is what those of us in the civilised world find so bizarre about the United States. You're perfectly happy to show ads (and programmes) containing violence, but some women in perfectly decent underwear? Banned.

What is that about?

peta ad spoof

[characterZer0]

Let me know when there is a spoof of the PETA ad featuring bacon instead of vegetables.

Re:This is what the civilised world finds bizarre.

[FirstNoel]

It was those damn Puritans that the English sent over. They screwed the country up for everyone. I for one would rather see naked women on TV than another "terrorist" getting whacked or car exploding.

Re:This is what the civilised world finds bizarre.

[somenickname]

It's simple. The human body is evil. Unless it's been shot or otherwise maimed.

... more democratic than ... huh?

[petes_PoV]

Businesses aren't democracies. Anyone who has ever worked for / in one will know that within the first 5 minutes of walking into the office. They're there to make money - that's all. If you don't do what you're told to, you're out. Which is actually how it is for a visitor to any democratic country, so there are similarities after all.

Yeah, right

[Flavio]

After watching PETA's ad it's no surprise that it didn't air. I doubt they even have the budget to air commercials during the Superbowl.

PETA probably commissioned a sexy ad knowing fully well it wouldn't be approved by NBC. The fact that it's "banned" gives PETA the Superbowl publicity it can't afford. (And as others have said, Superbowl watchers aren't exactly PETA's target audience.)

Re:This is what the civilised world finds bizarre.

[barzok]

It's a nation founded by Puritans and presently populated with 200+ million prudes which has a multi-billion-dollar pr0n industry.

What's so hard to understand?

Re:This is what the civilised world finds bizarre.

[riggah]

"See Right, Religious. Also see Neo-Conservative."

There, I fixed that for you since you don't seem to realize that Republican and Neo-Conservative are not synonymous.

SNL 'skit' not a skit

[professorguy]

The story makes reference to Will Forte's very funny SNL skits as MacGruber. There were no MacGruber skits during SNL on Saturday night. However, there were 3 different and unrepeated pepsi ads aired during SNL where Forte reprises his MacGruber role. THESE WERE ADS.

.

The ads (or at least one of them) were repeated during the superbowl.

Re:This is what the civilised world finds bizarre.

[je ne sais quoi]

It probably has more to do with the evangelicals and mormons in this day and age. As far as I can tell, the descendants of the puritans are fairly open-minded, e.g., Massachussetts and Connecticut do support same sex marriage. So if you want to see scantily-clad women being sexually suggestive with vegetables and can't, blame the southern baptists, the LDS, some of the episcopalians, and the others like pentecostal (?), etc.

Re:This is what the civilised world finds bizarre.

[morgan_greywolf]

Apparently you haven't heard about the Federal Communications Commission, the fact that they have a process for accepting and acting upon complaints, and that there are members of the above-mentioned movements that have nothing better to do than sit there and watch TV and call in a complaint the moment they see skin or hear an F-bomb.

Why stop there?

[brucmack]

If you're going to watch ads on the internet, may as well make it worth your while...

http://www.fleggaard.dk/movie.aspx

(click that you're Over 18, then hit the first video thumbnail)

Re:SNL

[Just Some Guy]

SNL hasn't been funny for well over a decade and that skit was a prime example of it...

SNL has never been funny. It's always been good for a skit or two now and then, but the average humor level has been pretty low since the beginning.

Re:This is what the civilised world finds bizarre.

[ryanov]

But, in his defense, they don't seem to realize it either.

Re:This is what the civilised world finds bizarre.

[Yert]

I didn't have a problem explaining this to my children. "Those women are pretending the vegetables are body parts men have and use for making babies, hoping to spark the genetically programmed response men have to make babies in an attempt to manipulate and exploit the viewer's emotions."

What's the problem?