Dating Site For Gay Men Enters Super Bowl Ad Fray

The Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad isn’t the only controversial commercial on the block. Enter the ManCrunch.com spot, now in hot debate over at CBS. If you haven’t already seen this 30-second spot, we’re embedding it below. The video in question is basically an ad for a dating site catering to gay men. In the commercial, two football fans are watching a game when their hands touch in a bowl of chips. Making out then ensues.

According to a rep from the site, the company submitted the ad on January 18, and when they checked in again on January 22, they were told that the ad had not yet been approved and that all the spots were sold out. ManCrunch then requested that the ad still be considered, in case a place opened up.

According to Fox News, a CBS representative told Pop Tarts that spots were still open, so the situation is rather murky.

“Although the CBS Sales rep told us that it typically takes 24 to 48, hours it’s been 11 days and although we follow up with CBS every day they keep telling us they’re still reviewing it,” said a ManCrunch rep. Officials from the dating site say that they think the process is taking so long because CBS does not want to air the ad, yet the network doesn’t want to reject it outright for fear of backlash from gay and lesbian advocacy groups.

Such an ad airing during the Super Bowl would be a big coup for the site, “At no other time during the year can you reach men at the same point in time,” said the rep. “Plus, we knew our ad was going to be one of the more memorable ads that the media and public would talk about well after the big game.”

The rep still anticipates that CBS will accept the ad, but expressed distress that the process was taking such a long time. “We do wonder how long it took for them to approve the Pro-Life ad,” he said when asked about Tim Tebow’s hotly debated spot, “[but] regardless of whether or not you agree with CBS’ decision to accept the Pro-Life ad, we do applaud them for allowing freedom of expression and hope they treat our commercial the same.”

Still, unlike the Tebow spot, the ad is currently all over the Internet, and is likely to become more and more visible as the days go by. In fact, the ManCrunch rep said that he believes that it is sure to go viral. So perhaps the controversy will make the commercial more ubiquitous than a Super Bowl showing would.