Motorists heading westbound on state Highway 16 in Newark, Ohio, will no longer have to explain to their kids or elderly mothers why the vice president of the United States is being shown on her knees, tongue protruding, her intentions clear to most people of a certain age.
A representative for the billboard company that hosted the fake image, paid for by a local business, RK Towing, told The Newark Advocate on Monday they had grounded the ad due to its “vulgar” insinuation. So why did they allow it in the first place?
The Kennedy Outdoor Advertising spokesperson said the sexual innuendo was lost on those who approved the billboard. It was erected on Friday and taken down two days later.
“Once it was brought to our attention how vulgar the advertisement actually was, we immediately removed it,” said Clayton, the Kennedy spokesperson, who declined to give his last name due to the threats the agency has received since the billboard was taken down.
“We don’t condone anything like that, not in any way whatsoever,” he continued. “Whether we agree with it politically or not, we would never agree to do anything like that. That was definitely a mistake.”
Harris has dealt with such misogyny ever since her first run for office in 2002 to be San Francisco’s District Attorney. She was dogged by right-wing innuendo from the beginning, with many pointing to her relationship with Willie Brown, the leader of California’s State Assembly and a Democrat Party kingmaker—the Bay Area politicos dated in the 1990s.
Critics alleged Harris slept her way to the top, an accusation that fails to consider she has never lost a general election in six tries, starting with the DA’s office, then the California attorney general, the U.S. Senate, and finally, the vice president.
Yet the juvenile belittling continues.
At Donald Trump‘s already infamous Madison Square Garden rally, one speaker insisted “(Harris) and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.”
She’s been accused by some Christian nationalist leaders of being possessed by a “Jezebel spirit.” And, using a familiar trope aimed at women seeking the presidency, Trump declared Harris would be unable to handle strong world leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“She’ll be so easy for them,” the former president told Fox News. “She’ll be like a play toy.”
But the Ohio billboard may represent a new low. Kennedy Outdoor Advertising’s spokesperson said there was but one vetter for the billboard and that person thought it portrayed the vice president as a “crybaby.”
The copy features text surrounding the doctored photo that read: “Kamala can’t talk right now. She’s at a baby shower.”
“If there would have been three to four people looking at this artwork, it probably would have never made it to the billboard, obviously,” the spokesperson said. “But if there’s one person reviewing it, they may not think anything of it or realize the sexual innuendo that the ad presented. It’s not like the ad goes through five or six people to review and approve it.”
“Some folks are just filthy…I am glad that someone had the good sense to take down this crap…” wrote one commenter on X.
Chimed in another, “It shows who THEY are Misogynistic liars.”
The Harris billboard was juxtaposed with a neighboring billboard featuring Trump’s face, accompanied by a quote from the former president: “In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way.”
In the comments section of the article published by the Latin Times, one commenter wondered how anyone could make a moral argument in favor of Trump.
“This is a guy who has been convicted of sexual assault, hung out with a sexual predator, sexually assaulted his first wife, and would ogle young women as part of his duties as the owner of the Miss America pageants,” the reader stated. “And that is only a very few examples all documented in the public record. And you’re making moral judgments about Kamala Harris based on rumors. You can’t make that up.”
