Organisers MoveOn.org are hoping the focus of attention on the one day of the year when advertisers can almost guarantee their spots will be seen will work for the anti-war message as campaigners against an attack on Iraq step up their efforts.
On screen Super Bowl XXXVII, which sees the Tampa Bay Buccaneers go up against the Oakland Raiders, will see ads from Levi Strauss for its new Type 1 jeans brand, Pepsi, Southwest Airlines, Anheuser-Busch, H&R Block featuring country music legend Willie Nelson, careers website Monster.com owned by TMP Worldwide, and the Partnership for a Drug Free America.
Last week, MoveOn.org revived a landmark 1960s anti-war TV ad on US television as part of its campaign to put pressure on the Bush administration. The ad showed a little girl walking through a flowering meadow as a voiceover warns of the consequences of war in Iraq.
The ad was first seen on US television in 1964, as part of a campaign against the presidential candidate Bob Goldwater. Intercut with the girl are scenes showing what could happen if war in Iraq spun out of control as viewers shown images of burning oil wells and wounded soldiers.
Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org said: "Our message is simple: President Bush should let the inspectors finish their job. As long as the United Nations team is still hard at work there's no reason to send in our troops and unleash forces that could escalate into the overthrow of friendly governments or chemical and biological warfare or even nuclear warfare."
The aerial ad, like the airtime for the TV ad, is being funded by a small group of private citizens. It coincides with the report the UN Inspectors are set to file with the Security Council next week.
The "Let the Inspections Work" banner will be towed by plane over Super Bowl-related events and the greater San Diego area this coming Saturday afternoon, January 25 2003. The banner will fly again near Qualcomm Stadium and around San Diego the morning of Super Bowl Sunday.
However, as a security measure the Federal Aviation Authority has declared a no-fly zone within a seven-mile radius of Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday between 11am and 10pm and there will be no unauthorised flights.
MoveOn.org is a key player in Win Without War, a coalition of organisations, which includes The National Council of Churches and NAACP.
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