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New York City Sights – Times Square Advertising

By Brian | January 30, 2010 | Share on Facebook

Walking through Times Square the other night, I saw what I can only assume is President Obama’s latest plan to reduce the federal deficit:

This ad cost the Weatherproof Jacket company twelve trillion dollars. (Kidding, of course)

Seriously, though, I was very surprised to see a sitting President appear in an ad for a product like this. I wonder if they needed (and received?) his permission to do this. And if not, I wonder what he thinks of them doing it. The clear implication here is that President Obama endorses Weatherproof jackets, and would recommend we all buy/wear one. Quite frankly, I think of the President (any president, not just Obama) as being above such things. And heaven forbid those jackets are made in some third-world sweatshop…

Googling around, all I find is the predictable political carping (the left: “he looks damn good in that jacket”; the right: “he’s a sellout for appearing in a jacket ad”), so my chances of finding out exactly how this came to be ae essentially nil.

Unless anyone reading this knows?!?

UPDATE: The sign has been removed, and replaced with a very clever alternative. Bravo, Weatherproof. Bravo.

Topics: New York, New York | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “New York City Sights – Times Square Advertising”

  1. Janet says at January 30th, 2010 at 6:29 pm :
    What I heard (on NPR? not sure) was that he knew nothing about it until it went up, and that the White House immediately asked them to take it down, because it indeed wasn’t appropriate for a sitting president. Is it still there?
    At lunch today at a local diner with the kids, they had the Georgetown-Duke game on TV. I wasn’t paying attention, but on our way out one of the kids said “wow, that broadcaster looks like the President.” I looked up, and sure enough, there he was. “That’s no broadcaster, that IS the President!”

  2. Brian says at January 30th, 2010 at 6:59 pm :
    I took that picture last week, so unless they took it down very recently, yes – it’s still there.

    The text that you can’t read (full size version here) says, “President Obama in Weatherproof Ulra-Tech, The Great Wall of China, November 18, 2009.”

  3. Mike Starr says at January 30th, 2010 at 9:22 pm :
    I read in the NYT a few weeks ago that the company agreed to take it down after the White House contacted them … I’m surprised that it’s still up.

  4. Brian says at January 31st, 2010 at 10:59 am :
    Thanks, Mike. First of all, I love the fact that my photograph of it is better than the New York Times’ shot.

    Second, I love this quote from Freddie Stollmack, President of Weatherproof (emphasis mine):

    If we were to get a letter or a call from the White House saying they didn

  5. FamilyGreenberg.Com - New York City Sights – Times Square Advertising, Part Deux says at February 2nd, 2010 at 8:13 am :
    […] Brian on New York City Sights – Times Square Advertising […]