PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Turns out political endorsement is not for the Birds. Advertisements declaring Vice President Kamala Harris as the "official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles" have appeared at bus shelters around Center City — but, according to the Eagles, they are fake news.
The team posted a notification to X, stating, "We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed."
The ads, seen at bus shelters on 34th and Walnut streets in University City and 18th Street and JFK Boulevard in Center City, show a cartoon image of a woman in profile — presumably Harris — wearing an Eagles helmet and carrying a football. Below the image, in big, bold lettering, is the word KAMALA.
The ads also feature the URL philadelphiaeagles.com/vote, which points to a real, but old, nonpartisan website set up by the team to provide information about registering to vote in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey primary elections, which were on April 23 and June 4, respectively.
According to a SEPTA spokesperson, bus shelters are owned by the city and there is a review process for all ads.
SEPTA says they have been in touch with its ad agency to make sure they are monitoring SEPTA-owned ad spaces. So far, they say they haven’t seen any of these Harris ads pop up on their property.
The city says whoever is responsible “broke into the securely covered shelter ad space and somehow put the posters in the space.”
“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,” a city spokesperson said.
The city says they plan to conduct a full inventory on Tuesday of all bus shelters and remove any illegal posters.
Nina Baratti contributed to this report.