Lawyers for the Seattle Seahawks sent a cease and desist letter to Republican Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley because her husband was wearing a team jersey in a campaign ad.
Though, the team has ignored a Democrat candidate who did the same thing.
The Seahawks reportedly sent the letter to Smiley’s campaign on Sept. 6 demanding that she either stop airing the ad or retool it to blur out the Seahawks jersey her husband was wearing in an ad showing the Smiley family watching football, political blogger Brandi Kruse recently reported.
The letter warned Smiley that the team’s trademarks need to be removed because they don’t want their logos used “in any manner that may suggest that it is in any way endorsed by, or otherwise affiliated” with the team.”
But, it turns out that the jersey Mr. Smiley wore in the ad was actually given to him by the team when he raised the 12th man flag in honor of his service as the nation’s first blind active-duty military officer.
Regardless, the Smiley campaign put the ad back in the production room and used special effects to make the jersey look less like the Seahawks uniform.
The campaign Manager for Smiley for Washington, Kristian Hemphill, blasted the Seahawks on Twitter for its childish move.
“Woke corporations thought they could help Patty Murray by BULLYING Tiffany with senseless legal threats. Their efforts have both failed and backfired. This campaign will continue to hold to account the failures of a three-decade incumbent and offer Washingtonians a path from crisis to hope, just as Tiffany did for Scotty and countless other injured veterans.”
Woke corporations are going to learn the same lesson that DC bureaucrats have. @SmileyForWA is not easily intimidated
Their efforts have backfired & we will continue to hold to account the failures of a 30 yr incumbent and offer WA a path to hope.https://t.co/dKv5rXqSrC
— Kristian Hemphill (@DaeHemphill) September 30, 2022
But Kruse found an example where a candidate’s use of the Seahawks team logos was apparently not objectionable to them. Accordingly, Washington State Rep. Tarra Simmons, a Democrat, not only used Seahawks jerseys on her campaign Twitter account, she even had actual Seahawks players posing with her while wearing the jerseys.
So how do you explain this from a Democratic candidate’s campaign page? @TarraSimmons5 has done AWESOME things with her life — but so has the Smiley family.
Are you a football team or a political organization? pic.twitter.com/ChJdd7RegA
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) October 1, 2022
Surprisingly, no cease and desist letter was sent to Mz. Simmons, as far as anyone knows.
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