While its founder, James Dobson, makes headlines with his advocacy of conservative politics, his group, Focus on the Family, is trying to redirect the nation’s attention to, well, just that – the family.
The Colorado Springs-based Christian group bought advertising time to promote better parenting during the last two episodes of ABC’s hit reality show, “Supernanny.” The 30-second spot, broadcast May 2 and 11, marks Focus’ first foray into national, prime-time TV.
The ads boosted hits to the group’s parental-advice website by 82 percent, according to Focus spokeswoman Lisa Anderson.
It’s just a coincidence, she said Monday, that the group launched its first national TV campaign the same month its outspoken founder has thrust himself into the middle of the debate over whether to eliminate the use of filibusters to block judicial nominees in the U.S. Senate.
“It pretty much happened in tandem. It’s our job to remind people that, hey, families are what we are all about,” Anderson said of Focus’ five-person public relations staff.
“Ninety-five percent of what we do is helping parents and their families with their marriages and their parenting. That’s often not necessarily perceived because what people see in the news is the more controversial stuff,” she said.
Dobson avoided overtly partisan politics until 2003, when he said he was inspired by a court decision removing the Ten Commandments from an Alabama courthouse.
Earlier this year, Dobson was a vocal advocate for keeping Terri Schiavo of Florida on life support. He jumped into the filibuster debate because he sees judges as a key force behind what he views as the nation’s moral decline on issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
The group’s television ad imagines what it would be like if children warned their parents before they misbehaved. It urges viewers to visit the group’s website, focusonyourchild.com. The site assures parents they don’t need a nanny or personal coach like ABC’s Jo Frost to handle sleep, mealtime, potty training and other challenges with their kids.
“We’ll be there with parenting advice and a faith-based perspective that can make all the difference,” the ad says.
Dobson made his name dispensing conservative parenting advice, advocating spanking among other approaches with children.
“Corporal punishment, when used lovingly and properly, is beneficial to a child because it is in harmony with nature itself,” another Focus on the Family website reads.
The Cleveland-based United Church of Christ has complained that ABC refused to run its TV ad in December because of a long-standing policy against allowing religious advertising. The Rev. Robert Chase said Friday he thinks that if the Focus ad was aired, then his church’s ads also should be allowed.
ABC Television said its policy is to “not accept ads for religious groups which present religious doctrine.” The Focus on the Family ad “in our opinion, did not present religious doctrine,” added network spokeswoman Julie Hoover.
The network has a separate policy against commercials that address “controversial issues of public importance” such as abortion or judicial filibusters.
Hoover said the Focus ads are not the first her network has aired on behalf of religious groups. Still, she refused to cite those other groups, saying, “That’s not something we disclose. Watch television if you want to know.”
Staff writer Susan Greene can be reached at sgreene@denverpost.com.
