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As Taylor Murphy watched the Major League Baseball playoffs on Monday evening, he became increasingly disturbed by the broadcast’s commercials. The father of five, who lives in Provo, Utah, took to social media to express his concerns.

“Hey MLB — wanna get more kids watching baseball? Maybe start with the commercials,” he wrote, going on to name a few of the ads that he found problematic.

The post resonated with millions of people online, including his father, former National League MVP Dale Murphy, who shared the post with his followers on X.

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Alex Call also weighed in and made headlines with his post likening some of the advertising to “soft porn” and asking the league and TV networks to do better.

“My son wants to watch baseball with Dada, but how do I justify that when a half-naked women could come on screen anytime?” Call wrote on X.

The league has not responded to the posts publicly and did not respond to a request for comment. But Murphy’s post has brought to the light the concern many Americans have about the propriety of advertising that may be intended for adults but is also viewed by children.

In comments on both Taylor Murphy’s X account and Call’s, people called on networks to stop showing ads that are inappropriate for children, including commercials for gambling, sexual dysfunction and horror films.

“100%. Thanks for saying this,” one person wrote. Another wrote, “Thank you for having the courage to speak up about this.” And one person suggested that Call lead a one-inning boycott for people who oppose the ads to flex their power as viewers and consumers.

The conversation follows on the heels of controversy about an ad featuring the actress Sydney Sweeney, who posed nude, with parts of her body covered with sports equipment, for a sports trading app ad, Novig. It was the second time in a year that a Sweeney ad drew outrage; the last time was an ad for American Eagle when she talked about her “good jeans.”

While the American Eagle ad was defended in some conservative circles last year, the near-nudity in the Novig ad was condemned on both sides of the political aisle for sexualizing women in sports.

A Megan Fox commercial for a sexual-dysfunction product has also drawn fire. Reporting on the ad for Variety magazine, Brian Steinberg wrote, “There are few nuances to Fox’s appearance and what it’s meant to inspire, and the new ad shows just how more direct pharmaceutical advertisers have become when tackling conditions that can be embarrassing or sensitive.”

But it’s not only sexualized commercials that are the problem, Taylor Murphy, 39, told the Deseret News. He’s just as concerned about the commercials promoting horror movies.

“These are graphic,” Murphy said. “These are scary. They are intended to capture adults’ attention, and kids are innocent bystanders.”

He said he grew up watching baseball nonstop, with his parents coming in and out of the room. Today, he says, he feels he has to be present with his hand on the remote when his children are watching baseball on TV, and look for ways to distract his sons while the commercials air.

“Whether it’s things that are inappropriate, with sexual themes, or really scary movie trailers, … the type of content was really frustrating me,” he said.

Murphy said he didn’t intend for the post to be “a morality discussion” but rather to point out to the league that such commercials ultimately hurt baseball if families tune out.

Murphy, who has graduate degrees in both law and business from Brigham Young University, said these types of commercials run counter to the league’s desire to attract young people to the sport.

“I love baseball,” he said. “As a baseball purist, I just want baseball on TV. And I understand that they need to run ads to keep the lights on, but my view is those ads should be G-rated, or at the very highest, PG-rated. It is a little shocking that we have ratings for TV series, for movies and other content, but then for commercials, whatever happens is going to happen, is how it feels sometimes.”

The Federal Communications Commission has rules that prohibit “obscene, indecent or profane” language and “false or misleading” ads and can take action over an advertisement being too loud, but it generally falls to networks to decide what they want to air. In addition to the ads that Murphy and others cited, there have been television ads for Ashley Madison, the website that promotes extramarital affairs. A Washington Post analysis of references to gambling in sports broadcasts earlier this year found that “a gambling reference, promotion or commercial occurred every four minutes on average” in the segments the Post examined.

Murphy said he doubts a single social media post will result in sweeping change in what advertising a network accepts, but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t try to make their views known, and do what they can in their families and communities to uphold their values.

“As a society, we shouldn’t be OK with content that’s not suitable for children being publicly displayed like this,” he said.

He added: “I want to communicate to the MLB that this is a logical, strategic recommendation. People will say, ‘Well, it’s men 50+ who are watching the MLB playoffs. That’s who the target is. That’s how advertising works.’

“To them I say, I understand that they can make more ad revenue today by running ads that appeal to 50-plus-year-old men. However, my recommendation to them would be to create a more wholesome, more family-friendly product. … If the goal is long-term growth of baseball, you want as many young people watching the game as possible. That should be your north star as an organization.”

This article originally appeared on Deseret.com.

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