UPDATE: CBS has now formally rejected the ad.

The network shot down the commercial Friday in a letter to the
site — ManCrunch.com — saying the "creative is not within the Network’s
Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday."

Also the network said
its sales department had difficulty verifying the credit of the site to
guarantee payment of the estimated $2.5 million cost to air the ad.

"After reviewing the ad – which is entirely commercial in
nature – our Standards and Practices department decided not to accept this
particular spot," said CBS in a statement. "As always, we are open to
working with the client on alternative submissions."

If you’ve been following CBS’s twisting explanation for why
it’s allowing the ad created by the Focus on the Family ad featuring Tim Tebow
and his mother Pam to air after years of rejecting ads for progressive causes
for being too "controversial" you might have heard that they recently
changed their policy.

"We have for some time
moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that
our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms," said
spokesman Dana McClintock. "In fact, most media outlets have accepted advocacy
ads for some time."

But I guess CBS’s change in policy must only extend to
behaviors it approves of because it still hasn’t approved an ad for a
gay dating website.

The network
refuses to say if it will allow an ad for a gay men’s dating service to air the
day of the big game, Feb. 7, despite the fact that it’s content is no more racy
than nearly any beer commercial not starring the Budweiser Clydesdales.

In the ad for
ManCrunch.com, two men watching the game reach into the chip bowl at the same
time, then look into each other’s eyes — awkwardly at first — before kissing
passionately.

At this point, with less than a week to go
before the game, CBS is claiming that it still both needs to review the ad (how
much time does it take to review a 30-second ad?) and that all the ad spaces
are full, a fact ManCrunch
spokesman Dominic Friesen denies.

"It’s
clearly a form of discrimination that we’re getting the runaround, that we’re
not being told the truth," he said. "Quite frankly, there is a lot of
ad space available — a lot of the companies that typically advertise during
the Super Bowl are not advertising this year."

So which is it CBS? Are you denying ManCrunch the right to buy the airtime or is there really not any airtime left? And if you
are denying it I’m sure we’d all like to know the reasoning behind that decision.

Watch the ManCrunch ad: