Followup Poll Finds Pro-Life Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad Connected With Viewers

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 15, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Followup Poll Finds Pro-Life Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad Connected With Viewers

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 15
, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A followup poll conducted by Barna Group, a Christian research firm, finds the pro-life ad featuring Tim Tebow and his mother Pam connected with Super Bowl viewers. The study finds most people understood the pro-life message behind the ads and millions eventually went to the Focus on the Family web site.

Barna conducted a national telephone poll with 1,001 adults from February 7 through February 10, including interviews on the evening the Super Bowl ad aired.

Among those who viewed the football contest, 43% said they had seen the Tebow commercial and 9 percent were able to recall the spot without prompting.

With the high level of viewership of the Super Bowl, (a record 106 million Americans watched it) that means 27% of all Americans, excluding those who may have watched the commercial online after the game, watched the pro-life commercial.

"The Focus-Tebow commercial generated consistent levels of viewership across a variety of demographic segments, reflecting the broad appeal of the Super Bowl," Barna reported.

Revealing the potential impact of the ad, 25 percent of all Americans who say abortion should be legal in all or most cases viewed the commercial. Some 30 percent of pro-life Americans who think all or most abortions should be illegal also watched the ad.

The polling found that the pro-life commercial made a huge impact on the nation as 62 percent of Super Bowl watchers said they were aware of the ad, and the story of Pam Tebow’s decision not to have an abortion, before the game.

A majority of ad viewers also understood the message of the ad with 38 percent of watchers saying it was meant to oppose abortion and 19 percent saying it was celebrating family. Another 9 percent said the ad reminded viewers that miracles happen, and 2 percent said the ad was meant to support Focus on the Family.

In total, 68 percent of ad viewers understood the ad’s message or came up with a related theme that fit in with the point of the Tebow commercial.

Also, half of those polled who watched the ad correctly said it was intended to influence their views on abortion.

The ad appeared to have a significant impact with 4 percent of those viewing saying it caused them to reconsider their opinions on abortion.

The Barna poll also found Americans strongly supportive of the pro-life ad with 78 percent saying they felt the commercial presented a positive message to viewers and 75 percent saying the commercial was appropriate to show during the Super Bowl.

Just 8 percent of those polled claimed that the commercial was offensive. That shows Americans did not buy into the mantra from pro-abortion groups that CBS should not have run the pro-life ad.

Barna’s poll indicated some groups recalled the ad better than others.

Men (34 percent) recalled the ad more so than women (20 percent), blacks (28 percent) recalled it more than white Americans (18 percent), affluent watchers recalled it (41 percent) more so than lower-income viewers (22 percent), and Republicans (36 percent) remembered the ad more than Democrats (24 percent).

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