NCTA Pulls Tornado-Focused TV Spot

NCTA’s pulled this spot, incidentally focused on a tornado, from the air Monday afternoon
 
There was an eerie moment for those watching “Anderson Cooper 360’s” coverage of the tornado devastation in Moore, Okla., on CNN Mon night. During a commercial break, a TV spot from NCTA came on about a little girl learning through cable TV about a horrible tornado that had caused mass destruction. She then used her broadband connection to help collect money to for relief efforts.
 
While it may have seemed as though it was hastily put together specifically for the Oklahoma disaster, it was actually one of 2 TV ads created as part of NCTA’s “Cable Connects Us” campaign that began running last spring. “This specific spot began running this spring, but yesterday afternoon we decided to pull it down from the TV and Web because of the Oklahoma disaster,” said Brian Dietz, NCTA vp, communications and digital strategy. The spot did continue running through last night, but should no longer be on the air, he said.
 
The concept of the TV spot is to tell the story of how cable can enable someone—in this case a young student—to learn about a natural disaster, put together a fundraising campaign and make a difference. “We had absolutely no intention of timing it for tornado season and pulled it off the air as quickly as we could,” Dietz said.