The Super Bowl took place on Sunday night, which means that advertisers everywhere were scrambling to get their commercials on the show.
The Super Bowl is known as the biggest night for advertising in television, so advertisers will drop millions just to get one of their commercials seen during the event. Nine Line Apparel is one company that decided to spend some serious cash on an ad for the Super Bowl.
Nine Line Apparel has never been supportive of the national anthem protests in which players like Colin Kaepernick would take a knee during the anthem before NFL games. Though the protests don’t happen as often now, millions of Americans are still outraged by them, as they see these players kneeling during the anthem as a slap in the face to military veterans and law enforcement officials.
In solidarity with Americans who believe that we should stand for the national anthem, Nine Line Apparel made an ad that “features soldiers, first responders, and images of military graves decorated with American flags and gives credit to them for protecting the rights of those like Kaepernick to protest.”
The ad is narrated by United States Marine Veteran Mark Geist, who survived the Benghazi attacks.
“Don’t ask if your loyalty is crazy. Ask if it’s crazy enough,” the veteran says in the ad. “When they question you running toward danger for those who are unable or unwilling, when they laugh at the thought of you willingly sacrificing your life for someone you may never know, stay that way.”
“Some people think you’re crazy for being loyal, defending the Constitution, standing for the flag,” he continues. “Then I guess I’m crazy. And for those who kneel, they fail to understand that they can kneel, that they can protest, that they can despise what I stand for, even hate the truth that I speak, but they can only do that because I am crazy enough.”
Nine Line Apparel was stunned when CBS Sports rejected their ad and refused to show it. While CBS officially told them that they rejected it because they feared the company could not afford the 45 second ad, Nine Line Apparel CEO Tyler Merritt is convinced that the real reason for the rejection was political.
“CBS’s purported reason for rejecting a Super Bowl commercial that extols patriotism is totally out of bounds,” Merritt said. “Let’s call this what it is: a blatant attempt to censor a message that their politically correct executives find offensive. We urge Americans who believe it’s important to show respect for our flag and national anthem to join us in calling out this offensive bias. It’s time to give a penalty flag to CBS.”
Check out the ad for yourself below.
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