Report: NBC Nixes Jasmin Emmy Awards Ad

LOS ANGELES—Betabeat.com is reporting that NBC Universal has given the thumbs down to an ad for the Emmy Awards telecast on August 25 that was submitted by live cam giant Jasmin.com. Calling the ad "relatively tame," BetaBeat writer Jack Smith IV quotes Megan Morahan of the network's ad sales team as telling Jasmin, "I ran your spot by our standards group, and unfortunately we cannot accept advertising for Jasmin.com." Though short on details, the rejection smacks of a double standard to Smith, who rhetorically asks why a company like Jasmin.com, which reportedly pulls in nearly a million dollars a day, should not be able to promote its service on prime time television. "After all," he answers himself, "Playboy produces a reality show for E! called Girls Next Door that is essentially a giant infomercial for an adult entertainment brand. GoDaddy.com ads have had bikini models in body paint and a semi-nude Danica Patrick getting a striptease from a masseuse after being told how 'tight' she is, and those ads get to run in the Super Bowl." Smith also juxtaposes Jasmin.com with another aspiring prime time player from the adult industry, tube site Pornhub.com, which, he writes, "is notorious for its viral publicity stunts, [and] gained notoriety for running a similar play when they applied for a Super Bowl ad spot." As far as Jasmin.com vice president Jerry Jardene is concerned, however, there is little similarity between Jasmin and Pornhub, which, as its name suggests, is a certifiable porn site. Jasmin, on the other hand, claims to be anything but. Notes Smith, "Don’t call Jasmin.com porn. Mr. Jardene insists that Jasmin is a 'lifestyle brand,' or 'adult entertainment,' but with the emphasis on 'entertainment,' not 'adult.'" But neither does Jasmin's Jardene see any comparison between the quality or intent of the ads created for prime time network broadcast by the two companies, dishing to BetaBeat, “PornHub’s commercials are terrible, and they were put out there to just to be rejected. We actually want these commercials to go to television, and we’re confident they will eventually.” Jasmin.com's new owners are not only determined to stay the course as they work to get their ads in front of television audiences, they also clearly want to elevate Jasmin to a household name on a par with the most iconic of "lifestyle" brands. As Smith puts it, "Jardene doesn’t want Jasmin.com to be RC or Kirkland Brand. He wants it to be Coca Cola." While it may be an uphill battle for the moment, Smith is in their corner, reasoning, "Even if you don’t buy the claim that Jasmin.com is a 'lifestyle brand,' Mr. Jardene’s efforts are sincere. He simply believes that if virtually everyone is looking at porn, it makes no sense to let the old guard of cable television decide that Jasmin.com can’t be a part of mainstream culture." And concluding, of the dubious rationales of corporate behemoths like NBC Universal, "After all, it’s just hypocritical to say it’s fine that 'sex sells,' as long as what you’re selling isn’t sex." Funny, we've been saying pretty much the same thing for years. The 47-second ad is embedded with the BetaBeat article here.