Philadelphia Eagles street posters endorsing Kamala Harris are "counterfeit political ads," team says
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A poster that's popping up around the city of Philadelphia alleges the Eagles have officially endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris which has left the Birds to debunk the rumors.
The posters have been spotted on 16th and Spring Garden streets, 18th Street and JFK Boulevard, and 34th and Walnut streets in Philadelphia. The poster pictured below at 16th and Spring Garden streets was later removed Monday afternoon.
The poster shows Vice President Kamala Harris holding a football while wearing a black Philadelphia Eagles jersey and signature Eagles green helmet. The poster is captioned "Kamala official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles" and has the URL philadelphiaeagles.com/vote printed underneath the caption.
The link takes you to an Eagles voting webpage that shows past Pennsylvania and New Jersey primary election voting deadlines from the spring. It also provides helpful links for first-time voters, polling locations, and guidelines on voting registration and requesting a ballot.
But the Philadelphia Eagles are saying they didn't cosign the creation, calling the street art, "counterfeit political ads" that they're working to remove.
We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed.
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 2, 2024
Matt Cassidy, who works with Philadelphia's Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, told CBS News Philadelphia the city is looking at this as a vandalism incident. The city is working closely with the ad company, Intersection, to have the ads taken down by Tuesday since they were illegally posted.
The city provided the following statement to CBS News Philadelphia:
"A number of illegally placed posters of Kamala Harris and the Philadelphia Eagles were placed in bus shelters in Philadelphia. These were not digital ads placed by the Harris campaign, the Philadelphia EAGLES, SEPTA, The City of Philadelphia or the media agency, Intersection, that handles the transit ad space. This was not a digital breach; whomever is responsible for the illegally placed posters, broke into the securely covered shelter ad space and somehow put the posters in the space. Intersection has advised the City's Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) that they plan to conduct a full inventory tomorrow of all bus shelters, and remove any illegally posters. The City has a process to review all bus shelter ads but this, again, was not a digital ad."
Social media users claim this is the work of artist Winston Tseng. CBS News Philadelphia is working to confirm Tseng is the artist behind the Eagles poster.
In an interview with Street Art News, Tseng previously said he likes to use brands and advertising to communicate societal issues with the hope of bringing attention to them in our day-to-day lives.
The street artist has made creations tackling political topics before by using familiar brands. Like one he did with Ben & Jerry's branding featuring President Joe Biden at a Philadelphia SEPTA stop.
The poster includes the website URL for benjerry.com/democracy, which takes you to the ice cream company's voting website, and highlights social groups like Color of Change, NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union and the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.
Another Tseng piece shows former President Donald Trump with the Pepto Bismol branding in Washington D.C.
It's unclear how many posters of Harris with the Philadelphia Eagles logo have been posted throughout Philadelphia.