PornHub's Super Bowl 2013 Commercial: Watch The Benign Video That CBS Rejected (SFW)

The Super Bowl has gotten so big, it often isn't about football at all. Now, instead of having a huge game that draws an audience so large that companies try to appropriate commercial time to sell their products, it's become a commercial media event where television ads now get trailers and promotional runs before they actually hit your TV set.

This year it's Mercedes' Kate Upton car-wash ad that is generating most of the pre-commercial buzz, but that doesn't mean others aren't trying to cash in on that, including those who aren't even running an ad during the prime-time football championship game (and for good reason).

I'm talking about PornHub, of course, which is an explicit adult entertainment video website, if the name wasn't obvious enough to tell. CBS rejected the 20-second advertisement that the company pitched, but not for the reason that you might suspect. The commercial is quite benign and safe for work (SFW). PornHub responded to CBS's rejection with this, from their press release:

"Super Bowl TV network CBS has stepped up its defensive line ahead of this Sunday's big game, blocking a proposed multi-million dollar commercial from Pornhub.com...a CBS spokesperson offered this brief response via email to the website's proposal: 'CBS Television Network Standards do not permit advertising related to pornography. Therefore, we cannot accept your submission.' Pornhub Vice President Corey Price said: 'The Super Bowl is the Holy Grail of ad spots and given our website's huge following in the US, we developed a G-rated commercial that we felt would meet the network's advertising standards.'"

(YouTube has taken down the original ad for some reason, but here's a working one, still incredibly SFW)

Thats it. Just an old lady and her (presumed) husband sharing a nice moment outside, while sappy piano music plays in the background. The ad looks cheap to make, and they didn't actually have to pay for the 20 second ad to get some of that Super Bowl buzz. The move was obviously perpetrated to gin up publicity because, you know, porn isn't popular enough on the internet. I would criticize this commercial for not having any relationship with its product, but since when has that stopped an ad from being successful? Not since three frogs croaked out three syllables in a row to sell beer.