CBS Sports Rejects TV Ad Featuring Pledge of Allegiance As “Too Political”

Before you get all up in arms and call KEPR-TV,  it's has NOTHING to do with our local affiliate..really!  This was done at the regional-national level.  So DON'T blast the folks in Pasco.

This is a corporate decision.   CBS Sports rejected an ad for Windermere Real Estate that was supposed to run on 9-11.

But here's why this will make, as Glenn Beck says, "blood shoot out of your eyeballs."   The ad was rejected because it was considered too political. Why?   It featured a little 4-year-old girl reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

It was recorded to coincide with an advertising campaign geared towards rodeo. That event was part of what's called the Wrangler Champions of Rodeo, an offshoot of the regular PRCA circuit, featuring some of the most famous and best competitors.  It's designed to beef up additional interest in the sport.  It's being nationally televised, and this was a local ad that was tied to that campaign.

Windermere officials and PS Media of Tri-Cities (who produced it)  are baffled as to why CBS chose to reject the ad as too political.  It doesn't contain ANY party affiliation or additional message - just the Pledge.  PS Media provides lots of radio and television ads for our stations, and has done so for years, and it was a well done project.

A CBS official named Jordan Bradley had said in an e-mail that the ad was rejected because it was political in nature.

Hmmm.  Let's see.  Rodeo, 9-11,  Patriots Day, and the Pledge of Allegiance?  They go hand in hand.   Maybe, and this is a stretch,  they could argue that in other types of programming, but rodeo?    And when is the Pledge considered political?  Guess CBS thinks we're being "too" patriotic.

Feel free to let CBS Sports know what YOU think of this action, by shooting them an email.  Here's the address:

pr@cbssports.com

 Or you can contact their corporate headquarters at 1-212-975-4321.   Make sure to tell them it's about CBS Sports rejecting the Windermere local Tri-Cities market ad with the little girl reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.  Tell them CBS Sports said it was "too political."

Let's swamp their phone system, shall we?

Here is the commercial, courtesy of PS Media's YouTube page.