WASHINGTON The National Restaurant Association has urged a company expected to advertise during Super Bowl XLI to shelve the commercial if it indeed casts the industry as a hopeless place to work, as previews have suggested.
The spot reportedly depicts the downfall of Kevin Federline from a well-off pop-star to a down-and-out fast-food worker. The ad is an installment of the ongoing campaign for Nationwide, the insurance company, tag-lined “Life comes at you fast.”
“We hope that these reports are inaccurate and that Nationwide will not be airing such an ad that would give the impression that working in a restaurant is demeaning and unpleasant,” NRA chief executive Steve Anderson wrote in a letter to Nationwide CEO Jerry Jurgensen. “Should an ad of this nature run during the Super Bowl, we will m ake sure that our membership—many of whom are customers of Nationwide—know the negative implications this ad portrays of the restaurant industry.”
The Super Bowl will be aired on network television on Feb. 4. It routinely rates as one of the most-watched television broadcasts of the year.