Super Rejection

CBS recently rejected several ads for placement in this years Superbowl. It appears that a rejection in some cases can lead to free publicity and even more visibility than actually running the ad during the Superbowl. One Ad for a Gay Dating Site called "Man Crunch" had it's ad rejected. While they were not looking for a rejection, they may have considered it as part of a good strategy to get some low cost recognition.

Now these ads can wind up on YouTube and could potentially receive more active viewers than if the ad actually aired during the Superbowl. Go Daddy has been very successful in using this strategy. They have submitted racy ads just to see them get rejected which in the end drives some nice targeted traffic to their ad online. With "Man Crunch", this may have been an unintentional consequence of their rejection, but in the end they are probably going to get a much more targeted traffic to their on line video ad than if they paid for a spot on air. This ad focused on a very limited market segment, gay males who like football. They would have spent millions just to gain brand recognition from a very specific segment. Now, with all of the press coverage of their rejection, they simply have to place their ad on YouTube and those most interested will visit the site and watch the ad.