Philly Producer Pulls Controversial Super Bowl TV Ad Submission
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A locally produced entry for a Super Bowl television commercial contest has been pulled by its producers even though it went viral on the web.
(Actors in TV commercial:) "Pastor, we are losing our flock. We must find a way to get them back to church."
"I know, I know..."
The "Doritos/Pepsi Max Crash the Super Bowl" contest got thousands of submissions. The winning entry will be played on air during the Super Bowl next month.
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Among the commercial submitted was "Feed Your Flock," entered by Media Wave Video Productions of center city Philadelphia.
Dave Williams, the director of "Feed Your Flock, " describes the pitch.
"The problem was the pastor is losing his flock -- people are not coming to his church. He prays, gets this divine suggestion, this divine intervention, and realizes he has to give away the Pepsi and Doritos to attract new parishioners -- which worked!"
The spot got more than 100,000 views on YouTube in three days, but also drew threatened boycotts of the products featured. Many posted on blogs that it was a mockery of the Roman Catholic sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
"It was intended to be funny, to make people a little bit nervous," explains Williams, "but there were enough clues in there that it was not in fact the Holy Eucharist."
Williams says the spot didn't make the cut for the final 10 in the contest, but there's always next year.
"Oh yeah, we are already throwing around some ideas," he laughs.
Reported by John McDevitt, KYW Newsradio 1060.
