Last year it was a brief glimpse of Janet Jackson's décolletage that caused a national outcry, this year its Mickey Rooney's derriere.
Fearful of a similar response that met the famous "garment malfunction" during last year's Super Bowl, Rupert Murdoch's Fox Network has turned down a TV commercial because it features a glimpse of the 84-year-old actor's bottom.
The 15-second spot, for cold and flu medicine Airborne, was due to contribute an estimated $1.2m (£640,000) to Fox's Super Bowl coffers on February 6. Fox's decision to reject the advert reflects a growing nervousness at TV networks about being fined for offending taste and decency - just a year ago CBS, which broadcast the final last year, was hit with a $500,000 fine for showing Ms Jackson's partially covered nipple.
In the advert, the octogenarian actor is seen relaxing in a sauna with a towel covering his lower half before someone sneezes and it falls to the floor, briefly revealing his buttocks.
Fox denied that the furore sparked by last year's Super Bowl had anything to do with its decision, saying it was part of its advertising vetting policy.
"Our standards and practices department, which routinely reviews ads, reviewed this ad and deemed it inappropriate for broadcast television," Fox said.
But Airborne's co-owner Rider McDowell defended the advert saying it was akin to "showing a baby's bottom.":
"There's nothing titillating about this spot, nor was there intended to be a sexual aspect to it," he told ABC News.
"We had to come up something sensational that would leave people with a lingering buzz or chuckle. To edit that out would be to emasculate the ad somewhat."
Fox is already facing a possible record $1.18m fine for showing an episode of reality TV series Married by America, which attracted scores of complaints.
Decency campaigners, led by the Parents Television Council of America and the American Family Association, deluged the Federal Communications Commission, accusing Fox of "stooping to new lows of indecency with repeated scenes of wild sex parties".
Janet Jackson's appearance on last year's Super Bowl attracted a record number of complaints. The FCC said complaints rocketed to 1.1 million in 2004, up from just 14,000 two years ago.
The US regulator said about half of all last year's complaints were linked to the Super Bowl broadcast.
Pressure groups have, however, accused the FCC of undercounting complaints, saying the actual numbers dwarf those reported by the agency.
In its campaign against Married by America, the PTC reckons that 4,073 formal complaints were routed by its website alone. In its notice to Fox concerning the fine, the FCC said it had received just 159.
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