'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Ban: After Movie Trailer Airs, Groups Want The '50 Shades' Film Banned

Days after the highly anticipated, too-sexy-for-TV trailer for “Fifty Shades of Grey” aired, critics are calling for the film to be banned or pleading with moviegoers to skip it.

The Parents Television Council lambasted NBC, which aired the movie trailer on Thursday during “The Today Show,” for promoting the film, according to The Telegraph. The watchdog group said the trailer, which was edited to omit some sexually suggestive scenes, should not have been aired at 8 a.m. when children would be watching.

"’The Today Show’ and ‘Good Morning America’ and shows of that ilk. They're on while you're getting your morning situated. They're on while you're getting your kids situated for school or for camp … trying to get breakfast before you go off to work," PTC spokeswoman Melissa Henson said. "The fact that they're romanticizing sexual violence in this way is also very troubling."

NBC said it did not air the full-length trailer, which was posted online by its site Today.com later in the day, as a courtesy to viewers. "We are always sensitive to the content we air on our program,” an NBC spokesperson said, adding the version was “edited with our audience in mind."

The PTC is not the only group that has a problem with the film based on the best-selling novel by E.L. James in which the two main characters engage in BDSM.

Blogger and radio host Matt Walsh urged “the women of America” not to see “Fifty Shades” so it tanks in the box office. He wrote:

“Please do not underestimate the significance of this. Here, now, you have been given the opportunity to grab ahold of our society and drag it back from the precipice. You cannot cure all of our ills, but, if you answer the call, you can at least help us take one small step toward peace and prosperity.

“This is truly a seminal moment in our history. The weight of our future, our children’s future, our children’s children’s future, partially rests on the decision you are facing. Your task, ladies, is simple. All you must do is not buy tickets to '50 Shades of Grey' when it’s released in theaters on Valentine’s Day.

“Not one ticket.

“Weekend box office total: $0.

“The biggest flop of all time.”

Walsh said many of the women who support his condemnation of pornography on his blog are the same who are “gushing frantically about this film.”

“They don’t want their husbands watching porn,” he wrote, “but they’ll not only watch and read porn themselves — they’ll advertise that fact to the entire world.

An anti-porn group also condemned the trailer because it "romanticizes sexual violence."

“The implications of such a relationship — abuse of power, female inequality, coercion and sexual violence — glamorizes and legitimatizes violence against women,” Morality in Media director Dawn Hawkins said.

So far, the “Fifty Shades of Grey” camp, director Sam Taylor-Johnson and Universal Pictures, which will distribute the film, have not responded to the attacks.