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Obama for America

"Big Bird" +

:30 ad from Oct. 9, 2012.

Obama (voiceover): I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.

[Music] Male Announcer: Bernie Madoff. Ken Lay. Dennis Kozlowski. Criminals. Gluttons of greed.

And the evil genius who towered over them?

One man has the guts to speak his name.

Romney (clip from the presidential debate): "Big Bird.”

Romney (in Clinton, IA on 12/28/11): “Big Bird.”

Romney (in Peoria, IL on 3/19/12): “Big Bird.”

Big Bird: It’s me. Big Bird

Male Announcer: Big. Yellow. A menace to our economy.

Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street.

Romney (clip from the presidential debate): “I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS.”

Male Announcer: Mitt Romney. Taking on our enemies, no matter where they nest.

Notes: This is a clever ad which generated a lot of buzz.

From the press release announcing the ad...

Big. Yellow. Loved by kids everywhere. And only one candidate has the courage to go after him. Today, Obama for America is out with a new TV spot because, while President Obama passed historic Wall Street reform to hold big banks accountable and give consumers tools to make informed decisions for themselves, his opponent, Mitt Romney, has shown true conviction by vowing to take down Big Bird and keep Sesame Street under control.

Attacking one of America’s favorite feathered friends has become a staple of Mitt Romney’s stump speech, and was featured in his dramatic debate performance. But even on issues as seemingly simple as 8-foot tall talking birds and early childhood education, Mitt Romney’s rhetoric is out of touch with the facts. When asked how he would cut the deficit, Romney’s answer is to eliminate PBS and Sesame Street – an absurd solution. You would need to cut PBS more than 1,000 times to fill the hole in Romney’s budget promises!

As the Count (and anyone who has watched him on Sesame Street) can attest, that’s just bad math.


However, as might be expected, Sesame Workshop ("the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street and so much more") requested that the ad be pulled...

Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. 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.