Sesame Street wants President Obama’s campaign to take down its latest attack ad against Mitt Romney, which features footage of Big Bird.
“Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns,” a Tuesday statement on Sesameworkshop.org reads. “We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.”
The Obama campaign said it would review the request.
“We’ve received and will review their concerns,” said an Obama campaign official.
The statement from the workshop behind the popular children’s show came a few hours after the Obama campaign released the ad, which attacks Romney for his call to cut PBS funding.
The heavy-hitting ad compares “Sesame Street” character Big Bird, whom Romney mentioned during last Wednesday’s presidential debate, to corporate titans prosecuted for financial misdeeds.
“Bernie Madoff. Ken Lay. Dennis Kozlowski: Criminals. Gluttons of greed. And the evil genius who towered over them?” a voice-over says as a silhouette of Big Bird moves on screen.
Romney’s mention of Big Bird during the debate brought the yellow puppet back into the national spotlight, causing a frenzy on the social media website Twitter and leading to a cameo by Big Bird on “Saturday Night Live.”
“I like PBS. I love Big Bird. Actually, I like you, too,†Romney said to debate moderator Jim Lehrer, the host of PBS’s “NewsHour.” “But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for.”
The Obama campaign has since mocked Romney over the remark, with the new ad being the latest attack on the Republican presidential candidate.
“Big, yellow, a menace to our economy,” the ad says. “Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street.”
Source: TheHill.com
How long did it take u to dig this out? The CCO is getting about as bad as the CP in showing their favoritism. What a shame!!!
Less than a minute. It was on the Real Clear Politics website when we checked today’s polls. Looks like Big Bird fired the President. That HandsDown is real news. PBS gets nearly $500 Million per year from the government and is basically non political. It was the President who put Big Bird in his political ad without getting clearance from the owners of the intellectual property. What do you think would happen if one of the candidates used a private character like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck? PBS did he right thing. We hope the President honors their respectful request.
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