Pull "Big Bird" Ad, Sesame Street Tells Obama Campaign

After a dismal defeat during the first presidential debate, the only thing Obama seems to have glommed on to is Mitt Romney's Sesame Street "Big Bird" comment. His campaign quickly put together an ad starring Ken Lay, Bernie Madoff, Ken Lay, Dennis Kozlowski and Big Bird. The ad pokes fun at Romney for being more concerned about Wall Street than Sesame Street.

 The problem is, his people didn't bother to check with the Sesame Street people if it was okay to feature Big Bird in the ad, before spending a load of money producing it. It wasn't. So Sesame Street has asked the campaign to pull the ad, stating that:

Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and, as is our general practice, have requested that both campaigns remove Sesame Street characters and trademarks from their campaign materials.

Not sure if Romney's camp has used any of the Sesame Street characters in their campaign materials, but this must be a bit of a blow to Obama.

Ironically, Sesame Street would not be adversely affected if Romney pulled funding from PBS.

According to Politico, Obama was also asked to stop using NBC news footage in his campaign ads.

“NBC News has not granted any campaign permission to use our news material. As is our practice, we have requested that the Obama campaign refrain from using NBC News material in this and future advertisements,” the network said in a statement.

Double ouch.



Source: Politico