The 'stop global warming' ad ABC won't air

by Emily Gertz

Published October 10, 2008 @ 06:00PM PT

On September 24, former Vice President Al Gore called for civil disobedience to block construction of new coal power plants.  On September 25, broadcaster ABC refused to air a TV ad called "Repower America" from the We Campaign --  a project of the Al Gore-founded Alliance for Climate Protection.

Today AdAge picked up the story, which has  been building in the green blogosphere, reporting that "ABC defended its move not to air the spot on "20/20," citing its policy on controversial issue advertising. 'All of our advertising is reviewed on a case-by-case basis, and the context of this particular ad was determined not to be acceptable,' said Julie Hoover, a network spokeswoman, who read from a prepared statement.

"When asked for a copy of the network's policy, Ms. Hoover said she needed to check if it was public and that it was "unlikely" media could view a copy."

The We Campaign had wanted Repower America to run during the Sept. 26 episode of ABC's news magazine "20/20."  ABC ran the campaign's Free Us spot instead.  The We Campaign opted to go public with ABC's nixing the ad, Ad Age reports, "after watching the TV commercials aired during presidential debates Tuesday night on the network. 'The debate coverage on all of the channels looked like they were sponsored by carbon-based companies. Exxon. Chevron, they were all over the place,' Giselle Barry, director of communications for the Alliance for Climate Protection, told Ad Age. "'It begged for action.'" 

ABC objected in particular to an image of Capitol building in the ad (see above), according to the We Campaign, because it was "not incidental to this advertising. Please replace the image with one that is not of another national building or monument."  The inference seems to be that ABC decided, in light of former Vice President Gore's comments the day before, that the presence of the Capitol building in the ad was an encouragement to viewers to engage in potentially illegal protest actions against the federal government.

Here's the ad -- which began running Sept. 26 on networks and cable news channels including CBS, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, according to the Alliance:

What do you think: too "political" for prime time?  Tell us in the comments.

If you want to talk back to ABC about its refusal to air the spot, the We campaign provides this handy online form to make it easier.  As of this writing, 196,297 people have sent a message, according to the We Campaign.