Posters declaring Kamala Harris is 'official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles' are 'counterfeit,' team says

Posters declaring that Vice President Kamala Harris is the "official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles" were placed in at least six Philadelphia bus shelters, WCAU-TV reported.

The posters feature a profile image of an individual appearing to be Harris wearing an Eagles helmet and holding a football, along with the Eagles team logo and large bold letters spelling the name "Kamala" as well as the phrase "official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles."

'It's encoded in people's brains, this picture of Kamala Harris with the Eagles,' city resident Mathilda Jones told the station. 'So no matter what happens now, the psychological effect is there. It's done.'

On the bottom is a link to Philadelphiaeagles.com/vote, which is a legitimate page on the Eagles website encouraging participation in the electoral process, but there's no Harris endorsement there.

The Eagles on Monday said the posters are not legitimate: "We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed."

WCAU reported that a Harris campaign spokesperson said "no comment" in regard to the posters.

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While WCAU said the Eagles hope to have all the posters removed by Tuesday morning, WPVI-TV spoke to at least one observer who said that might be too late.

"It's encoded in people's brains, this picture of Kamala Harris with the Eagles," city resident Mathilda Jones told the station. "So no matter what happens now, the psychological effect is there. It's done."

Another city resident, Phillip Carter, told WCAU in its video report that "by definition it's wrong ... and yes, they're removing it, but it's still here. It's not going any place."

WCAU reported that it isn't known who created and paid for the posters.

Steve Keeley of WTXF-TV interviewed a man who was covering one of the posters with photocopies of the Eagles' statement calling them "counterfeit political ads":

WCAU said Intersection Media — a New York-based company that owns the bus shelters where the posters were spotted — released the following statement: "We are aware that several of our bus shelters located in Philadelphia have been vandalized and that the paid advertising copy in each of those 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. 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 the ads as soon as possible."

A city spokesperson released a statement as well, WCAU said: "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."

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