Advertisements suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris is the preferred presidential candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles have been taken down or covered up as the football team insists it didn’t place the ads at bus shelters in Pennsylvania’s largest city.
In a statement posted to X Monday, the Philadelphia Eagles announced that it is aware of “counterfeit political ads” that have circulated and is “working with our advertiser to have them removed.”
While the National Football League team did not elaborate on the contents of said ads, images shared on social media reveal a poster at a bus shelter in Philadelphia showing a cartoon depiction of Harris, the Democratic nominee for president in the 2024 presidential election, wearing an Eagles jersey and helmet in addition to holding a football.
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The word “Kamala” is displayed in large letters below the picture of Harris, with a declaration that she is the “official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles” located directly below the candidate’s name.
The bottom of the poster included a link to the Eagles’ official voter mobilization webpage, which contains resources and information about primary and general elections for the team’s fan base in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The Eagles’ advertising partner, Intersection Media, acknowledged to local media that “several of our bus shelters located in Philadelphia have been vandalized & that the advertising copy in each of these shelters has been replaced with unauthorized copy.”
“While our bus shelters have locks that typically prevent the installation of [unauthorized] copy by non-Intersection staff, occasionally people find a way to unlock the ad box and insert unauthorized copy,” Intersection Media stated.
“The unauthorized copy in this case implies an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris by the Philadelphia Eagles. We note that the Eagles and Intersection had nothing to do with the creation or posting of this unauthorized copy and Intersection staff will be removing these ads as soon as possible.”
A video documenting the presence of the ad at a bus shelter in the city appears alongside a video of the same bus shelter without the ad posted on it, suggesting that the removal efforts are underway.
However, video footage shared by local news reporter Steve Keeley shows that at least one of the ads was still up as of Monday night.
Concern about the ads prompted one Eagles fan interviewed by Keeley, identified as Joe, to take matters into his own hands by taping several sheets of paper featuring the Eagles’ statement on X about the matter over the ad at one bus station.
“This is a circumstance that’s very concerning to me,” he explained. “My concern here … is not that someone is expressing an opinion, which everyone’s entitled to do, but this person is lying to everyone that comes and uses this stop.”
“That’s what I’m very concerned about; the fact that they’re spreading lies that the Philadelphia Eagles endorsed Kamala Harris as a candidate for president of the United States. We all know Philadelphia’s the battleground for Pennsylvania, and these [types] of lies are the things that prevent honesty in the election process and I think that’s what we have to promote.”
A spokesperson for SEPTA, the public transit system in southeastern Pennsylvania, said the bus shelters are owned by the city and deferred comment on the matter to city officials.
“SEPTA’s ad spaces are mostly in train stations and on-board buses and trains,” the spokesperson maintained. “So far, we have not heard anything about ads like this appearing on SEPTA property.”
Controversy over the political ads comes as the presidential election is just about two months away. Pennsylvania is expected to play a major role in determining the next president.
With 19 electoral votes in the Electoral College, Pennsylvania is the largest swing state that does not lean to one candidate or the other as most states do. The RealClearPolitics average of polls taken in the state since Aug. 8 shows Harris leading Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump by 0.5 percentage points.
While Pennsylvania as a whole is competitive in presidential elections, Philadelphia is overwhelmingly Democratic. In the 2020 presidential election, as President Joe Biden carried the state by just 1.2 percentage points, he won the city of Philadelphia by 63.5 percentage points.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
