The ad is shown before the erudite commentary by Colion Noir:
Investors Business Daily (IBD) on the banned NFL ad:
Politics Of Sport: While ads featuring violent movies and video games regularly appear on NFL broadcasts, pro football has banned an ad supporting the Second Amendment. The NFL is within its rights, since Item 5 in its prohibited list of Super Bowl ad categories includes “Firearms, ammunition or other weapons; however, stores that sell firearms and ammunitions (e.g., outdoor stores and camping stores) will be permitted, provided they sell other products and the ads do not mention firearms, ammunition or other weapons.”
But the ad submitted twice by Daniel Defense does not sell firearms or one of the company’s popular DDM4 rifles. Daniel Defense has a brick-and-mortar store, where it sells products other than firearms.
In fact, the ad does not sell anything. It’s a visual paraphrase of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees the right of individuals to keep and bear arms to protect their country, themselves, their property and their families.
The ad doesn’t even mention firearms, but shows a father picking up the Sunday newspaper as a football game plays on the radio.
He goes inside the house, hugs his wife and looks in on his baby as his voiceover speaks of his responsibility to protect them and the house they live in.
To the NFL, apparently, this simple message, subliminally in defense of our Second Amendment rights, is an incitement to violence that can’t be run during a violent game in which players that have had run-ins with law enforcement are often celebrated as role models. Some 683 NFL players have been arrested since 2000, including around three dozen since the 2013 Super Bowl.
Good taste has never been a priority in Super Bowl ads and certainly the NFL is less picky during the regular season. In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre last year, for example, a commercial promoting the shoot-’em-up flick “Gangster Squad” aired during a Colts-Texans game and a spot promoting the M-rated video game “Hitman: Absolution” aired during a postgame show.