After speaking with White House lawyers, Weatherproof has agreed to take down the billboard the sporting goods company put up last week. Posted in New York's Times Square, the advertisement featured president Barack Obama, standing at the Great Wall of China, bundled up in one of their jackets.
Of course the president wasn't modeling the jacket, he never even mentioned it in any of the press he gave while in China. Actually the company CEO, Freddie Stollmack, saw the picture and thought the jacket looked familiar. After checking it with a magnifying glass he immediately contacted the Associated Press and bought the rights to the image.
After the billboards went up and the White House responded negatively, citing illegal use of Obama's image for commercial advertising, Stollmack said he never said Obama endorsed the garment. So, in his mind, he didn't do anything wrong.
Except, that in the history of the presidency, no other president has ever been featured in any kind of commercial ad campaign. Have other presidents and first ladies worn designer clothing? Certainly, and they've made the public aware of exactly what they were wearing...fine..
But never has an image of a sitting president been clipped and posted publicly, let alone in the most visible spot in the world, the implication being that Obama is some kind of model/president...whether Stollmack said it or not, the billboard itself IS an endorsement. And it's just not dignified.
I understand the public fascination with both Obama and Michelle and I even understand the JFK/Jackie comparison..modern, hip, fashionable...yes, yes, yes...but we cannot forget that this man is the leader of the free world. He should be treated with the same reverence that Bush, Clinton, Reagan and all the others before him have received. He should certainly not be reduced to America's Next Top Model.
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