EDIT: Big Bird stars in Obama ad

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s plan to end the federal subsidy to PBS was the fodder for President Barack Obama’s newest campaign ad, which rolled out on Tuesday, according to The Boston Globe.

The ad’s narrator delivers the line “Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street” while cutting to images of Big Bird, the loveable, yellow bird on the PBS show “Sesame Street.”

The Globe and other major news organizations have already identified the ad as satire. However, satire was probably too strong of a word to be applied here.

Typically, satire involves wit. This ad is anything but witty. Rather, the ad capitalizes on a line that Romney uttered in the first presidential debate a week ago: “I love Big Bird … but I’m not going to keep on spending money on things [we need] to borrow money from China to pay for it.”

However ridiculous the ad, is it really all that surprising that is was produced? It shouldn’t be.

Political candidates capitalize on the details of their opponents’ campaigns. That is the reality of 21st century campaigns.

Is it right? No. But it happens.

If the situation was reversed and Obama had uttered the Big Bird line, we could probably expect Romney to produce an ad mocking the president.

Looking forward, it will be interesting to see how Obama’s campaign responds to Sesame Workshop’s request to pull the ad, if at all.

The studio released a statement on its website Tuesday requesting that the ad be taken down because it does not “endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns,” according to The Globe.
Regardless of whether or not the ad violates the studio’s policy, its message is weak and reinforces just how bitter the presidential campaign has become.