The Red Sox cable station “stopped airing” a U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner campaign ad that “criticized the team’s ownership” during Friday night’s game because a representative said that it “violated the network’s intellectual property rules,” according to Callie Ferguson of the BANGOR DAILY NEWS. A spokesperson for the New England Sports Network said in a statement that the 15-second television spot, which “blamed private equity for the team’s recent slump, ‘included unauthorized use of third-party intellectual property and did not comply with NESN’s advertising standards.’” The spokesperson did not specify which components of the ad broke the station’s rules, although it “featured text closely resembling the Red Sox font.” On Saturday, the Platner campaign released a statement “implying that the ad’s messaging influenced the network’s decision to take it down” (BANGOR DAILY NEWS, 5/24).
SHARING HIS THOUGHTS: MEDIAITE.com’s Michael Luciano wrote in the ad, Platner “accuses FSG of having ruined the Red Sox” and says he misses Dodgers SS Mookie Betts, whom the Red Sox traded to the Dodgers in 2020. Platner said in the spot, “Private equity has destroyed our favorite baseball team, stripping them for parts. Private equity is buying up our homes, our sports, and our lives. I will reverse the private equity curse. I’m Graham Platner and I approved this message because I miss Mookie Betts.” NESN aired the ad during Saturday’s game, but the network stopped airing it partway through the telecast (MEDIAITE.com, 5/25). In N.Y., Robinson & Balk wrote Federal Communications Commission former senior official Gigi Sohn said that NESN’s decision to pull the commercial “was unusual,” but “not completely surprising.” Sohn said, “At the end of the day,” cable networks like NESN “don’t want to lose viewers, and they don’t want to lose subscribers.” Since NESN is a cable network, it is “not beholden to the same requirements as broadcast channels for granting federal candidates airtime” (N.Y. TIMES, 5/24).
