The ABC network defended itself by not allowing an ad to run during the Oscars, a very popular event. This ad consisted of promoting paper products sold by Quill and marketed under the fictional brand “Dunder Mifflin”. The problem is that the show where Dunder Mifflin appears on is called The Office and runs on NBC. It might be wrong for them to have such a strict policy to such a situation but they might not want to mislead their viewers into thinking they’re endorsing a competitor’s TV show. Furthermore, the ad mentions the fact that The Office runs on NBC every Thursday, directly affecting ABC’s prime time shows.

The blog post I’m commenting on does specify that a similar ad ran during the Super Bowl, which was televised by the CBS network. The fact that this network allowed the ad to air during such an important event brings to question why ABC decided not to do so. CBS also has many TV shows that they don’t want to hinder by allowing such advertisements. However, they might have found that not allowing the ad to air could potentially cause more problems than it’s worth (possible criticisms or lawsuits). Airing an ad that mostly promotes paper products that are branded under an imaginary company (might not be known to everyone) might not affect the potential viewer preference.

It is evident that the add featuring the NBC logo at the end could discourage any other network to actually air the ad, especially during such a popular event. Even more, these events are exclusive to the network that airs them (The Oscars are exclusively aired by ABC) and therefore the network might want to promote their own shows instead. Each network decided to look at the opportunity cost of airing the ad during these important events.

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Based on this blog post.