An estimated 90-million viewers will be watching the Super Bowl Network (CBS) next Sunday not just to watch the New Orlean Saints take on the Indianapolis Colts, but for the much anticipated annual advertisements during breaks that cost an average of 3-million for 30-second slots. Gay dating website ManCrunch.com‘s ad will not be among them.

CBS released the following statement:

“After reviewing the ad – which is entirely commercial in nature – our Standards and Practices department decided not to accept this particular spot. As always, we are open to working with the client on alternative submissions.”

The network also claims that they partially turned down the advertisement for financial reasons, but ManCrunch feels like the real reason is obvious.

“It’s straight-up discrimination,” said Elissa Buchter, spokeswoman for the Toronto-based gay dating page. “We have the money to pay for it. If the ad showed a man and woman kissing it would have been accepted. You see ads for erectile dysfunction morning, noon and night. It’s discriminatory that they wont show this….They should call our bluff. If the ad doesn’t air on the Super Bowl, it will air on another network. It’s not like it plays like Adam Lambert [kissing another man on the AMAs].”

Despite their submission being rejected, according to web traffic statistics courtesy of Alexa.com, gay dating site ManCrunch’s global internet viewers spiked from 0.0006% at the start of January to 0.013% as of Sunday.

Did the mainstream media network discriminate against gay dating, or are the network’s claims of the ad being too racy for the network legitimate? You be the judge.

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