Banned 2011 Super Bowl Commercials

The super bowl is quickly approaching, so you know what that means: some of the best TV commercials of the year are about to appear. However, some super bowl commercials are just too bad for TV. So what "banned" 2011 ads that you won't be seeing?

First up is an ad for JesusHatesObama.com, which features a Jesus bobblehead doll menacingly staring at an Obama bobblehead doll until it falls into a fishbowl. Of course, like so many banned super bowl commercials before it, you can bet that its creators knew that FOX would reject it. Here's the thinking: step one: create a very cheap, offensive commercial; step two: wait for FOX to reject it, then alert media outlets that your ad has been rejected; step three: profit (hmmm...this gives me a great idea for a commercial starring the underpants gnomes). It's a tried-and-true method that has worked quite well at getting media attention for companies that don't want to spend millions on actually airing super bowl ads, and it seems the more offensive or sexual the ad (like the sexy PETA vegetable commercial from 2009), the better. You can see the Jesus Hates Obama commercial here, and another example of one of 2011's commercials that was banned for being too sexy for TV below.

An Ashley Madison ad is another of the biggest banned commercials of 2011, even though the controversial website, which helps arrange extramarital affairs, spent a little more cash on theirs by hiring a porn star to star in it. However, it makes absolutely no sense: a woman walks into an office and tells everyone that her husband is cheating on her, which results in trippy visions of a man whispering to a capybara (a critter that looks like a giant guinea pig); a girl-on-girl kiss (well, at least one that's about to happen; I guess Ashley Madison decided that an actual kiss would be too much); and a guy kissing someone in a rabbit costume (I think whoever directed it was a Stanley Kubrick fan). You can see it here. I'm not sure why it's supposed to want to make someone want to have an extramarital affair, but it did succeed in getting media attention without airing during the super bowl.

Surprisingly, these are the only two "banned" super bowl commercials that have been getting a lot of media attention so far, but there's still time for more companies to get in on the trend before game day. In the meantime, there's one super bowl ad set to go that probably should be banned: Justin Bieber + Ozzy Osbourne+ TRON-style outfits = the apocalypse, 4 sure (something crazy is bound to happen when you combine the powers of sports fans, metal heads, teen girls, and geeks).

SOURCES:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x86nio_banned-peta-super-bowl-ad-commercia_news
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/20/fox-rejects-super-bowl-ad-jesus-hates-obama_n_811882.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/20/ashley-madison-super-bowl-rejected-fox_n_811512.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/01/justin-bieber-super-bowl-ad-ozzy-sharon-osbourne.html