The Philadelphia Eagles NFL team are reportedly taking action over a “counterfeit” political ad endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris that appeared on social media.
The fictitious poster depicting Harris in an Eagles helmet reportedly put up at a bus stop in Philadelphia read “Kamala, the official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles”.
The #Eagles are aware of this Kamala Harris political ad. The team says it’s counterfeit and is working with their advertising partner to have it removed. pic.twitter.com/iW3bO25Glz
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 2, 2024
In response to the photos, the Eagles put a statement out a statement denying it was an official advertisement from the team and confirmed that it is working to have any posters removed. “We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed,” the statement posted to social media read.
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
OOH media agency, Intersection, said it would investigate how the counterfeit print ads were placed in secure digital billboard casings.
Matt Cassidy, a representative for Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems, told CBS News that the city is working closely with the ad company to have the ads, which were illegally posted and are considered an incident of vandalism, taken down by Tuesday.
“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 illegal posters. The City has a process to review all bus shelter ads but this, again, was not a digital ad,” the city of Philadelphia said in a statement.
Social media users have claimed that the poster is the creation of renowned street artist Winston Tseng, who has a tendency to use brands and advertising to communicate societal issues. Some of his more notable work includes a Pepto Bismol parody showing the “Symptoms of Trump”.
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The counterfeit campaign comes at a time when the use of AI, altered images, and misinformation are hotly debated. Last month, Donald Trump seemingly suggested that Taylor Swift supports his 2024 presidential campaign by sharing fabricated images on social media that portray the singer and her fans, known as Swifties, rallying behind him.
Trump shared the images with the caption “I accept!”, despite the fact that many of these pictures were clearly altered, with some apparently generated by artificial intelligence.
The posts quickly drew the ire of Swift’s fanbase, who accused Trump of deliberately spreading misinformation.
Among the images Trump shared was one showing Swift fans wearing t-shirts that read, “Swifties for Trump.” The image also included a “satire” label and a misleading headline claiming Swift’s fans were turning to Trump after an alleged foiled ISIS plot targeting her concert. This seemed to be a reference to a real incident where Swift cancelled concerts in Vienna due to a security threat, leading to the arrest of two individuals suspected of planning attacks inspired by ISIS.
Another image Trump re-posted resembled a World War I recruiting poster, substituting Uncle Sam’s face with Swift’s and the words, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.”
NBC News reported that two of the images Trump shared actually featured real women who are Trump supporters, but the implication that these women or Swift herself endorsed him is misleading.
It’s important to note that Swift has not endorsed any candidate for the upcoming election, but Swift has a history of opposing Trump’s politics.
In 2020, during the nationwide protests following the police murder of George Floyd, Swift condemned Trump’s actions, tweeting, “After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? We will vote you out in November”.
In July, Elon Musk violated his own platform’s rules by sharing a parody of Kamala Harris’ campaign ad on X without labelling it misleading. The altered campaign video uses content from the vice president’s recent campaign, but a voiceover that sounds like Harris makes it seem like she is calling President Joe Biden “senile” and calling herself an incompetent candidate.
Musk’s retweet of the altered campaign did not include a label indicating that the video was, in fact, a parody or manipulated content—an act that may violate X’s own policy regarding misleading content.
The video, which was labelled with a disclaimer saying that it was created with AI, has led to calls for a crackdown on political advertising laws in Queensland to prevent misinformation or deception. Experts have said that although the video was labelled as AI, there was no guarantee that other fake content before the 26 October state election would do the same.“No one benefits from a race to the bottom where fake content is used to ridicule political rivals,” director of the Australia Institute’s Democracy and Accountability program Bill Browne said.
