PETA: NFL pressured FOX not to air Kaepernick-inspired Super Bowl ad
PETA claims the NFL blocked its submission for a Colin Kaepernick-inspired Super Bowl LIV ad featuring animals taking a knee.
The animal rights organization told TMZ Sports it pitched the 60-second ad to FOX last month and received a message Dec. 30 that it was being reviewed. PETA said it has followed up multiple times since then but has yet to hear back from FOX. The organization also claims its advertising agency said FOX was being pressured by the NFL to reject the spot.
"PETA is challenging speciesism, which is a supremacist worldview that allows humans to disrespect other living, feeling beings and to treat their interests as unimportant," PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a press release. "Our patriotic Super Bowl spot envisions an America in which no sentient being is oppressed because of how they look, where they were born, who they love, or what species they are. It sends a message of kindness - one that the NFL should embrace, not silence."
FOX is reportedly charging just over $10 million for a 60-second Super Bowl ad this year.