No, Kamala Harris isn’t the official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles – and the city’s ads didn’t get hacked

The Eagles did not endorse Kamala Harris for president and, no, the City of Philadelphia did not get duped into running fake ads about it, both parties said. 

“Kamala, official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles” posters, accompanied by an illustration of the vice president in an Eagles helmet, popped up on bus shelters around the city over the long weekend.

There’s also an URL for a legit Eagles website, encouraging people to register to vote — though not endorsing a candidate — that appears to be from the 2024 primary. 

The city, and its advertising partner Intersection, chalk the signs up to an act of what they call “vandalism” and others might call street art.

While it appears to the naked eye that the advertisements overtook digital billboards, they’re actually paper posters wedged between the digital screens and the plexiglass protecting them, Matthew Cassidy, communications manager for the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS), told Technical.ly. 

“This was not a digital breach,” Cassidy said. “Whomever is responsible for the illegally placed posters broke into the securely covered shelter ad space and somehow put the posters in the space.”

Especially in photos, the ads can appear digital, even though they’re not.

Intersection will be removing the signs from bus shelters today and tomorrow, according to Cassidy. While the number and reach of the posters are unclear, they appeared across the city, from Penn’s campus to Spring Garden.

The Philadelphia Eagles responded to the posters shortly after they circulated online. “We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed,” the team posted on Monday. 

Reached for comment, SEPTA clarified that the city owns those bus shelters, so the transit authority does not handle the ad space.

A similar campaign happened earlier this summer in Philly, featuring Joe Biden and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. That was by artist Winston Tseng. Tseng confirmed to Technical.ly that the poster is his artwork, but “I don’t know how it ended up at bus stops in Philadelphia,” he said.

The note, cheekily signed “official artist of the Philadelphia Eagles,” makes it clear that the artwork is a satirical take on the political endorsement seen across the country leading up to the national election in November.

Intersection and the city have a vetting process for buying digital ads on its bus shelters, according to Cassidy, of OTIS. These, however, were not vetted because they were not official ads sanctioned by Philly. 

“The city has a process to review all bus shelter ads,” Cassidy said, “but this, again, was not a digital ad.”