Focus on the Family’s “life-affirming” Super Bowl TV ads starring former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam have scored some big numbers for the Colorado Springs-based evangelical Christian ministry.
Preliminary data show the Focus website logged 500,000 hits and 50,000 unique visitors during the hour in which one ad aired.
“Our traffic jumped to 40 times its normal volume,” Focus spokeswoman Monica Schleicher said Monday. “In the hour during the pre-game (broadcast), when the other ad aired twice, our Web traffic was 20 times our normal volume.”
The 30-second spot, still available online, features Pam Tebow telling how she almost lost her “miracle baby” Tim, whereupon he appears to land a flying tackle and take her out. After the sight gag, she pops back up to gently scold him, and the Focus Web address appears on the screen.
Since Jan. 15, when Focus on the Family first confirmed with The Denver Post that it had purchased time during the Super Bowl for an ad “celebrating the Tebow family’s positive personal story,” there had been speculation the ad would openly discuss Pam Tebow’s refusal to have an abortion despite the urging of doctors worried about complications.
Speculation led to protests from abortion-rights advocates and some of the biggest pre-game buzz surrounding a Super Bowl ad. It spurred a 41 percent increase in traffic to Focus on the Family’s website since mid-January, Schleicher said.
Once the ads actually aired, some reviews deemed them anticlimactic. Yet Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger said the ministry never intended to make a hard-core political ad — CBS parameters would not have permitted it.
“We knew what was in the ad,” Schneeberger said. “We never said it was anti-anything.”
The controversy led to dialogue, he said, and that is a good thing.
“Let’s get together and make abortion rare, if that’s the common ground,” he said.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
