Big Bird, Sesame Street Not Happy With Obama's Campaign Ad Targeting Romney

[NelsonG]

By Victoria McCarthy

On the brink of the 2012 presidential election, it’s no longer Wall Street that will be haunting the dreams of voters. It’s Sesame Street. And the tyrannical figure head sucking the economy dry is none other than our gargantuan feathered friend, Big Bird. Who is the one brave soul who will stand to fight this menace? None other than Mitt Romney, of course.

At least this is what the newest satirical ad from the Obama campaign has to say. The new spot capitalizes on Mitt Romney’s much mocked comment at last week’s Presidential Debate that, despite his affinity for the famous fowl, he intends, if elected, to cut funding to the Public Broadcasting Service, spelling trouble for Big Bird and the cast of characters on Sesame Street.

Sesame Workshop, the nonpartisan nonprofit behind Sesame Street, wasn’t giggling like the rest of us. In a statement to NBC, Sesame Workshop opposed the ad saying “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.”

These objections seem to have little sway over President Obama’s strategy, criticizing his Republican opponent Romney for his proposition to take from American institutions such as PBS while allowing Wall Street to have free reign. Addressing a crowd of 15,000 in Columbus Ohio yesterday, the president quipped “Today (Romney) decided we’re going after Big Bird. Elmo’s making a run for the border and Oscar is hiding out in a trash can.” To further highlight Obama’s pro Big Bird stance, the event also featured Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am performing the Sesame St. theme song.

Gov. Romney contested that the president’s stand is strictly for the birds saying in Van Meter, Iowa , “These are tough times with real serious issues. You have to scratch your head when the president spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird.”

However, the Obama campaign remains unwavering in its stance, electing fight over flight. As Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki indicated to reporters, “The point we’re making here is that when Mitt Romney was given the opportunity to lay out how he would address the deficit … his first offering was to cut funding to Big Bird and that is absurd and hard to take seriously.
As the Big Bird battle rages on, only one thing is certain- Sesame Street won’t be flocking with either candidate anytime soon.

[url=http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/10/10/big-bird-sesame-street-not-happy-obama-campaign-ad/]View the full article[/url]