Channel Nine has pulled the advertisement placed by the Australian Marriage Forum (AMF), which it ran, alongside Channel Seven, over the Mardi Gras weekend, AdNews understands.
It is believed that Channel Nine will no longer broadcast advertisements placed by the anti-same-sex marriage lobbyists, while it is also understood that the TV network has returned income to the organisation and will no longer engage in further dealings with AMF.
Two ads, which promote the idea that a child “has a right to a mother and a father”, were booked to run on an ongoing basis, dependent apparently on the funding the body receives from crowd-funding.
Last week the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) admitted received a “large number of complaints” about the ad but decided to stick with its decision not to bring it to the board for adjudication.
“Adjudicating on complaints about political advertising could be regarded as unduly restricting the implied constitutional freedom of political communication or interfering with the political process,” the ASB said at the time.
Google, meanwhile, continues to host the advertisements on YouTube, where they have notched up more than half a million views to date.
Perhaps in a move to redress the balance, a spokesperson for the search engine pointed AdNews to its Mardi Gras sponsored campaign in association with not-for-profit Twenty10 – a musical collaboration between budding lyric writers and Toby Martin. The song was performed on the main stage at the event's Fair Day.
In September 2013 Channel 7 and Channel Ten refused to show a TV ad criticising Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Australia by the activist group GetUp, which showed a man scooping up dog poo with a copy of Brisbane's Courier Mail.
The Australian Marriage Forum and Channel Seven are yet to respond.
Email Nicola at nicolariches@yaffa.com.au.