Elections

Sesame Street cries ‘fowl’ over Obama campaign ad

Zachary Snider Contributor
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The Sesame Workshop has asked that the Obama administration take down its campaign ad that uses the likeness of Big Bird to mock Mitt Romney’s strategy for reducing the deficit.

“Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns,” stated a blog post on the organization’s website. “We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.”

The 30-second ad evokes the familiar movie trailer voice to satirize Romney’s statement from the first presidential debate that he will cut funding to PBS in spite of his feelings for the network and for Big Bird.

“I like PBS. I love Big Bird,” Romney had said. “But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.”

The Obama administration and its supporters have made an effigy of Big Bird. And Elmo. And Sesame Street in general. Obama has joked about the comment at several campaign rallies following the debate.

“Gov. Romney plans to let Wall Street run wild again, but he’s going to bring down the hammer on Sesame Street,” Obama said in Denver a day after the initial debate.

“Somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird,” he said the next day in a speech in Cleveland.

“Elmo has been seen in a white Suburban. He’s driving for the border,” he joked at a campaign fundraiser in San Francisco.

An Obama supporter crudely dressed as Big Bird carried a sign that read “Crack down on Wall Street not Sesame Street” into a Romney campaign rally last week. (MATT LEWIS: Wall Street or ‘Sesame Street’: Obama hasn’t been tough on either)

Romney seems puzzled by the Obama campaign’s most recent attack strategy.

“These are tough times with real serious issues, so you have to scratch your head when the president spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird,” Romney said at a campaign rally in Iowa.

Watch the Obama ad:

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