Celebrating Life: Tim Tebow’s 2010 Super Bowl Ad

(I know that Tim Tebow isn’t as trendy in the media this week after losing to the Patriots last Saturday, but I scheduled this post over a month ago for this week since January 22 is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.)

Remember Tim Tebow’s controversial 2010 Super Bowl ad? He talks about it in his book, Through My Eyes (HarperCollins, 2011):

Even as we were thinking about what possibilities my next platform that God had in store might bring, another opportunity arose. In conjunction with Bill Heavener and Focus on the Family, we decided to create an advertisement to be played during the Super Bowl. We were very fortunate that Focus on the Family had donors set up to fund the ad.

Mom and I were the main actors in the ad and had a lot of fun shooting the commercial. But we didn’t let the subject matter of the script get out, and as soon as word got out that we were doing an ad with Focus on the Family, it instantly created a huge swirl of attention—with both supporters and detractors trying to figure out what the ad was all about. It was fun to see the speculation on every front as to the message the ad would convey. Because of the story surrounding the circumstances of my birth [see pp. 3–6], everybody on both sides of the issue immediately assumed that it was a pro-life message. So many columnists took me to task for something they assumed was going to be in the ad, but wasn’t.

Ultimately, the ad was a celebration of life and about the importance of family, showing me and my mom laughing and just being together. At one point in the ad, I tackled my mom, and she popped back up and warned me to be careful—“You’re not nearly as tough as I am.” Considering that she raised five homeschooled kids, she was right.

People seemed to enjoy the ad, and it really captured my mom and me and our relationship perfectly. Fun, lighthearted, enjoying life together. Focus on the Family’s website did contain a message about the circumstances of my birth, and they received a number of stories from people who altered their outlook on the issue based on my birth story. A survey of the Barna Group showed that five and a half million people indicated that they had cause to rethink their position on abortion. All in all, it was a great experience. (pp. 245–46)

Here’s the 30-second Super Bowl commercial: