Ah, the sights and sounds of football. Hard hits, fast action, two dudes locking lips …
Wait, what?
On the heels of a year mired by controversies, concussions, high-profile arrests and falling ratings (although the lousy season was somewhat tempered by a pretty great Super Bowl), the NFL has debuted an ad called “Fans of Love,” in which the famous “Kiss Cam” plays a major role.
For those unfamiliar with the ‘Kiss Cam’ concept: During some breaks in the game, cameras search the seats for couples. Some couples get featured on the jumbotron; the crowd encourages these lovebirds to kiss. It’s been a part of the stadium experience for the last few decades, right next to “The Wave” and bad ’80s anthem rock.
The ad, created in a partnership with the Ad Council, states the “Kiss Cam” at the 2017 Pro Bowl in Orlando transcended sports culture to become “a part of something bigger.”
“Something bigger,” in this case, is a ham-handed attempt at “inclusiveness and diversity.”
The two-minute-40-second ad features other couples, including interracial ones, Special Olympians and a survivor of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting and her girlfriend.
The ad continues with text that reads “Love has no religion, love has no age, love has no gender, love has no disability, love has no race” and ends with the words “love has no labels” —so-named after the critically-acclaimed viral campaign from 2015.
Although the NFL logo is never featured in the spot, the ad and its message have the full approval of the league.
“The NFL is strongly committed to diversity and inclusion,” said Anna Isaacson, NFL senior vice president of Social Responsibility. “We are proud to be working with the Ad Council on their Love Has No Labels campaign.”
On his Facebook page, evangelist Franklin Graham writes: “The NFL is trying to push homosexuality through a new pro same-sex ad.
“They’re trying to define sin as love and make it acceptable. This generation is being bombarded with an upside-down version of truth and love. Don’t fall for it. We have to love people enough to tell them the truth about sin and warn them of its consequences as defined by God, not man.
“Go to the NFL’s Facebook page and tell them how disappointed you are that they are promoting this agenda.”
The ad is the latest in a line of commercials supposedly celebrating “diversity.”
Earlier this month, both Airbnb and Coca-Cola ran apolitical-but-not-really spots meant to promote inclusiveness, which were basically seen as two companies shelling out a couple million bucks to troll President Trump over his immigration stance. {eoa}
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