Weeks after scoring a publicity coup with a 30-second Super Bowl ad
featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, conservative Christian group
Focus on the Family is at the center of another marketing tug-of-war –
this time involving the major governing body of college sports.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association removed a Focus on the
Family banner ad from one of its Web sites this week, NCAA spokesman
Bob Williams said Wednesday. The NCAA made the decision after some of its members — including
faculty and athletic directors — expressed concern that the evangelical
group’s stance against gay and lesbian relationships conflicted with
the NCAA’s policy of inclusion regardless of sexual orientation,
Williams said.

The ad in question was not about sexuality. It featured a father
holding his son and the words, “All I want for my son is for him to
grow up knowing how to do the right thing.” Like the Tebow ad, it
included the address of Focus on the Family’s Web site and the slogan,
“Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life.”

Focus on the Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger said that if such
material were “all of a sudden labeled hate speech, we have deeper
problems in our country than we even know.”

Williams said the decision to pull the ad was based not on the message but on the messenger.

Advertisers “should be generally supportive of NCAA values and
attributes and/or not be in conflict with the NCAA’s mission and
fundamental principles,” according to NCAA standards. The NCAA may
exclude ads or advertisers “that do not appear to be in the best
interests of higher education and student athletes.”

The NCAA Web site is maintained by CBS Sports, and the ad was part
of Focus on the Family’s Super Bowl contract with CBS, Schneeberger
said. CBS sells ads to support the NCAA.com site — which features
information about NCAA championships — and the NCAA reviews the ads,
Williams said.

He said the ad was reviewed and the content did not raise any red
flags. Williams said he was sure there was some discussion of Focus on
the Family, as well, but he did not know the details.

Schneeberger said there is nothing political, controversial or
hateful about the ad, saying it’s meant to urge people enduring life
challenges to check out Focus on the Family as a resource.

But Pat Griffin, a retired University of Massachusetts Amherst
professor who is a consultant to the NCAA on gay and lesbian issues,
said it’s not a generic feel-good message.

She said the slogan’s “life” reference is anti-abortion, and
celebrating families does not extend to all families but “a very
specific kind of family — heterosexual married families. A large part
of their energy goes to preventing other kinds of families of having
recognition.”

Griffin said it’s one thing for CBS to accept such an ad, but it’s different for the NCAA.

“It’s not the right image or role for the NCAA to be endorsing an
organization that has such an extreme right-wing Christian political
mission,” said Griffin, who used her blog to protest the ad.

Schneeberger said Focus on the Family spends 90 percent of its
budget on providing parenting and marriage resources and 10 percent on
advocacy on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

The Tebow Super Bowl ad — featuring the football player and his
mother — attracted protests even before it aired from women’s groups
that suspected it would feature an explicit anti-abortion message.