The Eagles and the City of Philadelphia are currently working to remove a series of fake political posters around the city that endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
“We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed,” team officials said in a statement on X .
On Monday, the posters began to pop up at SEPTA bus shelters across the city, showing what appears to be Harris wearing an Eagles helmet and holding a football, with the text, “official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles,” below her name.
The posters also include a link to the Eagles official website which contains nonpartisan voter information, past primary dates, and encourages people to register to vote, PhiladelphiaEagles.com/vote .
The site doesn’t name a candidate or mention support for a party.
The ads have reportedly been spotted at 34th and Walnut Streets, North 16th and Spring Garden Streets, and 18th Street and JFK Boulevard
At the bus stop in University City, social media videos showed a man taking matters into his own hands Monday night, covering the ad with several printed copies of the Eagles statement.
Intersection Media, the company that owns the bus shelters where the ads were posted, said in a statement that Intersection and the Eagles “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.”
“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,” the company statement said. “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.”
A spokesperson for the city released a statement saying that the ads were “illegally placed.”
“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.”
PHL17 spoke with residents in University City who had mixed reactions to the posters.
“I think I keep in touch with things, but I didn’t know about that. Even though I live in Philadelphia, I don’t care about the Eagles,” said Elizabeth Greenspan. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad.”
“I don’t think it’s a problem at all. It’s our city,” said Braheem Lighty. “I think everybody should be ok with it pretty much.”
Harris campaign officials have not yet released a statement on the incident.
No one has come forward to take responsibility for the ads.
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