The vast majority of FCC complaints made during and after Super Bowl LVIII had to do with a pro-Israel ad that ran … and it appears to have been planned that way.
TMZ has obtained FCC filings — including all of the complaints made pertaining to the Super Bowl in February — and there’s a recurring theme in just about all of them … namely, people pissed the State of Israel was allowed to air a commercial in the broadcast.
Per the docs, hundreds complaints were filed … and a handful of them were about the usual — indecent exposure, risqué outfits, language, etc. And a fair amount even complained about showing celebs … including Taylor Swift, Ice Spice, Usher and others who were in the house.
Aside from grousing about stars … just about every other complaint — amounting to quite literally hundreds — are all tied to a spot that aired during one of the breaks — “Bring All Dads Back Home,” produced by Israel.
The ad was about bringing home the hostages still held by Hamas … and it looks like a helluva lot of people were fired up about this getting air time during the game.
Many of the complaints include almost identical language, which reads in part … “CBS violated FCC rules by not properly disclosing to viewers on all platforms that ads aired during the Super Bowl were paid for by the Israeli government.”
The reason that’s interesting … the executive director of an org called the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee tweeted almost identical language … even touting the fact they got thousands of people to file FCC complaints.
In fact, on the AAADC’s own site … they actually have a whole FCC form ready to go — so yeah, it appears they were guiding people to file these complaints.
While the ED claimed to have had upwards of 10,000 people submit complaints … only around 1,000 were filed. Nonetheless, still a lot.
Also worth noting … the ad that ran did, in fact, say it was sponsored by the State of Israel — so despite what these folks might’ve alleged in their FCC filings, they were wrong.
Just goes to show … this is a polarizing issue, even today — and we’re months out from the initial attack on Israel.