After a “misunderstanding” between Sports Illustrated and domestic violence advocacy group UltraViolet almost led to the rejection of a powerful advertisement highlighting domestic abuse cases haunting the National Football League, the sports website will go ahead and air it ahead of Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday.
“While this specific campaign had two components — banner and flash — only the banner ad was reviewed due to a minor technical glitch. The banner ad we felt could be mistaken for our editorial stance,” spokesman Scott Novak said in a statement to the media. “If there is going to be an opinion on the matter we prefer to let our writers and editors take ownership of those opinions. Our thanks is to the person who raised the issue whereupon we discovered the misunderstanding.”
The ad, which is already available online, demands NFL commissioner Roger Goodell “must go” for his mishandling of 55 “unanswered” cases of players — most notably, Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson — committing domestic violence.
The 15-second spot featuring a woman being tackled by a player will debut on Sports Illustrated on Thursday, just three days before the New England Patriots, who are embroiled in their own scandal, play the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.
