ManCrunch is an

online dating Online dating, also known as Internet dating, Virtual dating, or Mobile app dating, is a relatively recent method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An onlin ...

website specifically aimed at male

homosexual relationship A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries ...

s, owned by the Toronto-based Avid Life Media, the same company responsible for the

Ashley Madison Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service marketed to people who are Marriage, married or in relationships. The site has been widely condemned for being a "business built on t ...

adultery service and other similarly unconventional dating sites. The site bills itself as a place "where many many many men come to play."

Rejected Super Bowl advertisement

ManCrunch gained major publicity in January 2010 when it was revealed that

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

was considering a

television advertisement A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

the site had produced to air during

Super Bowl XLIV Super Bowl XLIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champions New Orleans Saints and the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Indianapolis Colts to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

. The ad featured a male

Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the thi ...

fan and a male

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

fan reaching into the same bowl of chips at the same time, and after a brief pause, passionately kissing and

dry humping Non-penetrative sex or outercourse is sexual activity that usually does not include sexual penetration. It generally excludes the penetrative aspects of vaginal, anal, or oral sexual activity, but includes various forms of sexual and non-sexu ...

each other, much to the surprise of the other man present. The advertisement was initially put on a waiting list before the network outright rejected it due to it violating CBS's broadcast standards and because CBS believed ManCrunch's did not have sufficient credit (ability to pay for the ad). ManCrunch accused CBS of discrimination saying, "If the ad showed a man and woman kissing it would have been accepted." The ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' concluded it was "no more racy than nearly any beer commercial not starring the

Budweiser Clydesdales The Budweiser Clydesdales are a group of Clydesdale horses used for promotions and commercials by the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company. There are several "hitches" or teams of horses, that travel around the United States and other countries that rem ...

."CBS Rejects Gay Themed Super Bowl Ad
, Tracy Phillips, Fancast.com, January 29, 2010 The ad was accused of being a form of

ambush marketing Ambush marketing or ambush advertising is a marketing strategy in which an advertiser " ambushes" an event to compete for exposure against other advertisers. The term was coined by marketing strategist Jerry Welsh, while he was working as the m ...

by analysts, who theorized that the company knew the advertisement would be rejected by CBS, thus drawing free publicity to the site without needing to pay the extremely high rates for advertising during the Super Bowl. In July 2015—after data from Avid Life Media's sites (including ManCrunch) was hacked and leaked online—comedy writer Kristen Bartlett wrote an essay for Someecards about her work in Television Standards & Practices. Bartlett wrote the report rejecting the ad, and shortly after sending the report, Avid Life Media published a press release, including her name, phone number and the confidential report, all of which led to her being branded "a homophobe" online. Bartlett wrote that the reason she rejected the ad's content was not because it contained two men kissing, but because it did so in a manner exploiting gay men: "The entire premise is how funny and weird it is that two guys would make out. How gross, right? .... Gay sex is reduced to a ploy for cheap laughs." Bartlett also considered the ad submission to be a marketing ploy; noting the fact that the two men in the ad were wearing Packers and Vikings jerseys, she wrote that the jerseys appeared to be a safeguard that would guarantee the ad would be rejected. "In order to show NFL jerseys, clients have to spend a lot of money to obtain licensing. Now, I'm not saying that Avid Life didn't spend a fortune to use those jerseys. But I will say that they definitely didn't send me any releases."

References

External links

Official Web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mancrunch Online dating services of Canada Gay men's websites

Rejected Super Bowl advertisement

See also

References

External links