Independent TV Stations to Show Grace Ad : 3 Major Networks Had Rejected Deficit Spot

A group of independent television stations said Wednesday that it plans to donate time on Aug. 21 to broadcast W. R. Grace & Co.’s budget-deficit ad that the three major networks have refused to run.

Preston R. Padden, president of the Assn. of Independent Television Stations, said the one-minute commercial would be carried on about 150 of the trade group’s 160 member stations.

Plans are to show it shortly before 8 p.m. on stations in the Eastern and Pacific time zones and shortly before 7 p.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones.

The stations felt that the commercial, called “Deficit Trials: 2017,” is an “extremely well-produced and creative spot which deserves to be seen by the American people,” Padden said.

While independent stations “support and defend the legal right of the networks to reject any advertising they deem unacceptable,” Padden said the controversy over their rejection of the Grace commercial gave the independents an opportunity “to highlight the dramatic growth of independent television.”

Independent TV stations are those not affiliated with the three major commercial networks.

Padden said independent television stations reach 86% of the nation’s 85.9 million households with TV sets, and he estimated that 11.8 million people would be watching independent stations when the commercial is shown. He estimated the value of the donated ad time at $250,000.

The commercial shows an older man on trial and being questioned pointedly by children about why his generation failed to reduce the federal budget deficit in the 1980s.

ABC, NBC and CBS have refused to sell time for the ad, citing policies against running commercials that take a stand on controversial public issues. Such issues are better handled in news and other programming, they say.

Grace, a conglomerate with interests in chemicals, natural resources and consumer products, has argued that its ad simply calls attention to a problem and advocates no specific solution to it.