Group Requests Super PACs Avoided During Olympics

A new group that has been organized as a way of fighting against those who spend so much money on politics has requested for NBC to avoid displaying super PACs advertisements during the Olympics, which will be taking place in London this year. The group believes that these particular types of advertisements go against what the Olympics are all about and feels that it would take away from the Olympics. While the organization has put in plenty of effort, it is believed that they may have done so in vain, especially since the only campaign that has been purchased to display during the London Olympics is a campaign for President Barack Obama. The group chose to take their actions to NBC after hearing about the possibility of a $7.3 million advertising campaign that would be displayed during the Olympics in favor of Mitt Romney, who will be running against Obama for the spot as President.

The organization that gathered together is referred to as unPAC and they have managed to collect thousands of signatures for their petition as a way of presenting any type of super PAC advertisement from being displayed during the Summer Olympics. In the past, during a number of different televised sporting events, including the Super Bowl, networks have chosen not to advertise about specific topics as a way of avoiding certain issues. The unPAC group was first founded by a professor at Harvard Law, Lawrence Lessig. The group is nonprofit and believes in avoiding such a huge influence on politics, especially during such televised events as the Olympics.

A campaign director for the unPAC organization, Matthew Palevsky, says that the Olympics is all about bringing people together and getting them excited. He says that the games should not be a way for certain individuals to work on targeting and manipulating people into making decisions just because the elections are steadily approaching. At this point in time, there has not been much word as to whether or not PACs would be displayed throughout the Olympic Games. Palevsky believes that if NBC would agree not to display such advertisements, other networks would follow the same direction as NBC and choose not to display them either. For right now, NBC has not made any comment as to whether or not it will allow such advertisements to be displayed during the Summer Olympics in London. In the past, however, NBC said it would not object any type of political advertisement unless that advertisement was misleading, providing the people with information that is not true.