Sesame Street is not amused.
Within hours of Washington Secrets posting a story about a new STD and HIV at-home testing firm using Muppets Bert and Ernie in a promotion, “Sesame Street” said it was issuing a “cease and desist” letter to the company, Mately.
In an email, the Sesame Workshop Vice President Elizabeth Weinreb Fishman said, “The Mately ad, which you wrote about in your article that you posted earlier, represents an unauthorized, unlicensed use of our characters. We are contacting Mately and the appropriate parties with a cease and desist letter instructing them to take this down.”
….In the promotion, the puppets are shown looking at test results. “See Ernie, you’ve got nothing to worry about, everything is positive,” it reads.
“Sesame Street” in the past has fought off charges that Bert and Ernie are sending gay signals. In fact, they said in a 2011 Facebook posting: “Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves….they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”
Not that anyone cares, Sesame Street, but thanks for clearing that up.
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This is not the first time that Bert has gone off the reservation, so to speak. It’s a matter of historical record that Bert had something of a dalliance with Osama bin Laden.
For additional sordid reports, peruse the Bert is Evil site.