NEW YORK, NY – Executives at ABC television have axed a 30-second spot for Madonna’s “Truth or Dare” perfume, calling the ad too racy to run during the network’s primetime lineup. According to The New York Post, ABC programmers took a magnifying glass to the Material Girl’s commercial, making a list of editing requirements before they would allow the spot to air.
The black-and-white ad premiered last week, and was broadcast during the network’s talk show “The View,” which airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Despite that, ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, refused to all the commercials to run during primetime shows “GCB” and “Scandal.”
The Post quoted a source familiar with the network’s demands. The source reported that for the ad, ABC execs wanted to tone down Madonna’s more provocative body movements, and that they “want her bra digitally made bigger, and to extend higher to cover more of her chest, and her corset longer to cover more of her bottom.”
ABC’s actions mimic those of YouTube officials, who last month blocked underage users from watching the music video for the singer’s “Girl Gone Wild.” That video— also shot in black-and-white—evokes Madonna’s 1990s videos, which included depictions of sado-masochism and hyper-homoerotic imagery.
As in the case of ABC, YouTube content chiefs labeled the video “too raunchy,” “unsuitable,” and appropriate “only [to] be viewed by those 18 or over.” And like the network, the Web content provider required Madonna to make edits and turn down the heat in some places, in particular scenes depicting bare buttocks and gyrating men.
