21 Ads That Were Banned From Past Super Bowls

Just because an advertiser wants to shell out $4 million for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial doesn't mean they'll get to play in the big game.

From sexy Go Daddy ads and video game spots that tell people to "Go to Hell," to Bud Light spots that make a lot of fart jokes, networks have turned down a lot of major advertisers' content. In fact, Go Daddy got 13 ads rejected in 2006 alone.

But a "banned ad" that doesn't get past a network's Standards & Practices Department sometimes does wonders for a company's buzz.

"I remember one year when the networks wouldn't allow one of the Bud Light spots in the game, so Bud actually released it online as, 'the Super Bowl ad the networks wouldn't let you see,'"Tanin Blumberg, an account director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Budweiser Super Bowl ad veteran, told BI. "It was pretty smart … got about 1 million views on YouTube in just a few days."

So, given that networks often won't publicly comment on whether an ad is rejected and why, advertisers with no intention of actually releasing a Super Bowl ad just send out press releases saying that their ads were rejected, for publicity.

For example, gay dating site Man Crunch said its ad was rejected in 2010 because it dealt with homo and not heterosexual dating, when it really didn't even make it past CBS' credit check.

We've collected the biggest "banned" ads from the last 10 Super Bowls.

2013: SodaStream's first-ever Super Bowl ad got rejected by CBS for attacking two other huge game sponsors: Coke and Pepsi. SodaStream edited a new cut that will run.

2013: Although it's highly suspect that PornHub ever intended to buy a Super Bowl spot, the company said CBS rejected this spot because it related to porn. (Even though the ad itself is PG.)

2012: According to "the Big and the Beautiful" dating site, NBC rejected this ad because it featured bigger rather than skinny women in sexual situations. Really, it was sexually explicit, and it's questionable if the site would even pass the network's credit check.

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