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Fox News has declined to show a gun manufacturer’s ad during the Super Bowl, even though a gun is never seen nor mentioned.
The commercial from Daniel Defense has been rejected because it supposedly violates the NFL’s advertising guidelines.
The ad simply shows a Marine veteran, walking through his house, as he hugs his wife and they take care of their baby. Yet the National Football League believes the advertisement is too controversial for its fans to see.
The builder of the popular DDM4 rifle submitted the ad to Fox which will show Super Bowl XLVIII in February. The only gun seen in the commercial is a drawing of an automatic rifle in Daniel Defense’s logo, which is seen at the end of the ad. The commercial makes no effort to promote guns nor tells anybody to buy one. Daniel Defense sells other products in addition to guns.
Some see a double standard. NFL games often feature ads for video games, movies and television shows that feature characters firing guns and even killing enemies with firearms. Fantasy violence and fantasy guns seem okay to the League. Yet real guns – protected by the Second Amendment — seem to make the organization and the broadcasters nervous. Additionally, Super Bowl broadcasts often feature ads showing scantily clad women, causing parents to leap for the remote and cover their children’s eyes. The Daniel Defense ad is pro-family.
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In a YouTube video, NRA commentator Colion Noir said alcohol accounts for more deaths than does guns – and the NFL is fine with beer commercials. He called the NFL’s policy hypocritical, especially in light of what happened in 2012, when the NFL allowed a gun control ad featuring New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
What the NFL says
“Unfortunately, we cannot accept your commercial in football/Super Bowl spots due to the rules the NFL has set into place for your company’s category,” Fox Broadcasting told Daniel Defense in a letter.
The NFL permits organizations that sell firearms and other products such as retail stores that carry guns and other kinds of sporting equipment to advertisement on its games as long as they don’t promote guns. Daniel Defense manufactures and sells products other than guns and it operates a retail store that sells other products.
The NFL’s Prohibited Advertising Categories document includes this provision:
5. Firearms, ammunition or other weapons are prohibited; however, stores that sell firearms and ammunitions (e.g., outdoor stores and camping stores) will be permitted, provided they sell other products and the ads do not mention firearms, ammunition or other weapons.
The ad vaguely promotes the concept of family defense. It doesn’t even tell viewers how to defend their families.
Daniel Defense offered to replace the picture of a rifle in its company logo with an American flag or the words “Shall not be Infringed” in the commercial, Guns & Ammo reported. The NFL declined that option, too.
It sounds as if the NFL wants to avoid the controversy of being associated with a gun manufacturer or caught up in the gun control debate.
