Two Republican senators are asking Super Bowl host CBS to remove an ad from Sunday’s big game programming over the buyer’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In a letter to the presidents of CBS and its parent company Paramount Global, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall and Indiana Senator Mike Braun asked the Super Bowl host to pull the more than $6 billion ad purchased by Temu, an online marketplace backed by China.
Lawmakers continued to criticize the company that placed the ad for its ties to China and its forced labor practices.
This is the second year in a row that Temu has run an ad during the Super Bowl. Last year, his ad went viral after a catchy jingle.
Super Bowl LVIII between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas will take place on Sunday, February 11. More than 110 million people around the world are expected to tune in to the game.
“Americans are tuning in to watch the Chiefs win and Travis and Taylor keep PCC out of football,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
Senator Roger Marshall wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jersey while speaking at the Capitol.
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“Unfortunately, CBS is taking millions of dollars from CCP-backed companies seeking to advertise during one of Americans’ favorite days of the year: Super Bowl Sunday.”
“CBS and Paramount should not engage in promoting CCP-linked companies that systematically violate U.S. laws, including the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA),” the lawmakers wrote.
“In addition to Temu’s poor track record, China-based parent company Pinduoduo (PDD) was named this week to the US Trade Representative’s Notorious Markets List for the sixth consecutive year,” Marshall and Braun continue.
“PDD is well known for intellectual property theft, copyright piracy and the sale of counterfeit products.”
DailyMail.com has contacted CBS and Paramount Global for comment.
This would be the second year in a row that Super Bowl viewers will see an ad from the China-backed online retail business.
The company, which launched in 2022, ran an ad several times during last year’s big game. It quickly became the most downloaded app on Apple and Google in the following weeks.
‘The prices leave me speechless. I feel so rich. I feel like a billionaire. I’m shopping like a billionaire,’ said the ad’s catchy jingle. This year, the company also plans to donate $10 billion.
Temu committed to purchasing multiple advertising units during the upcoming Super Bowl, the Wall Street Journal reported in November.
The average cost of a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl on CBS is about $7 million.
“By running the TEMU ad, CBS is promoting a company known for exploiting Uighur slave labor for its products,” Marshall told DailyMail.com.
“When viewers see TEMU’s ad, they need to understand who is really behind this company and its unethical business practices that violate federal law,” Marshall added.
Senator Mike Braun Joined Marshall in Calling on CBS to Pull Temu’s Super Bowl Ad
Marshall first called on CBS to pull an ad for China-backed Temu in a post on X this week.
More than 110 million people are expected to tune in to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers
Temu is an online marketplace operated by Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holdings (file)
Last year, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released the findings of an investigation into fast fashion brands Temu and Shein, at which time the committee chairman said Temu was doing “almost nothing to keep their supply chains free of slave labor.
The committee concluded that Temu did not conduct audits or reports to ensure compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Law.
It also stated that the only measure Temu reported taking to ensure it does not ship products produced in violation of U.S. law was for its suppliers to agree to “boilerplate terms and conditions” prohibiting the use of forced labor.