Pup Talk: Denver ABC Affiliate Offers Cute Breaks From Ugly Political Ads

The screen went black during a Good Morning America commercial break five days before the November election, then warned of the content of the advertisement coming up —  "the ABC television network is required to carry it by federal law,” the text read, adding that the ad “contains scenes that may be disturbing to children.” 

And how: What followed were pictures of aborted fetuses, comparisons of some media figures to Hitler and other stomach-churning sights. ABC bookended the ad with another apology and explanation.

The unrefusable ads are part of the presidential campaign of Randall Terry, an anti-abortion rights advocate who's on the ballot in Colorado, among other states, but only referenced in the fine print of the commercial. Terry was particularly interested in getting the ad on The View, as well as some late-night shows; Good Morning America and its loyal viewers were collateral damage.

ABC's local affiliate, KMGH, doesn't have any control over those ads and when they run, since they're part of the "ABC inventory," according to Brian Joyce, vice president and general manager. But the network did give the affiliate a heads-up that the ads were coming a few weeks ago.

Even before the Terry ads aired, KMGH employees had noticed the ugly turn this election has taken. "Our creative team came up with a solution: Just give our viewers a break," says Joyce.

And so late one night a couple of weeks ago, James Dougherty, "one of our stellar creative services producers," Joyce notes, "came up with a cute puppy clip, which played with the note that it was a "15-second political ad break." The station is still running that, along with another fifteen-second clip of a peaceful creek with leaves falling and a ten-second clip of a kitten in a pumpkin.

"We've gotten more response from those than anything else," Joyce says.

The Terry ad included.

For all the rancor of this election season, "This political year has not been one of the biggest in recent memory," Joyce says. "We still have inventory."

Bring on the puppies.