Donald Trump is currently trying to get a leg up in several key battleground states including Pennsylvania, where he has made two appearances over the past week in Philadelphia alone. That’s also where his campaign filmed parts of the above ad, “Two Americas: Economy,” that began running in Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada, Virginia, and Colorado on August 29.
In the ad, a narrator promises tax relief for families, millions of new jobs created, increased wages, and thriving small businesses in Donald Trump’s America, over imagery depicting everyday people and workers. The only problem is that not all parties involved in the ad necessarily gave consent to appear in a Trump ad, specifically, and now some business owners and employees are claiming that they were duped.
Grethe Kiley, the owner of John’s Friendly Market, just across the river in South Jersey, told Philly.com that when she saw a film crew setting up outside her shop, she assumed they were filming a “toiler paper commercial or something.” Never in her dreams did she expect her family store, which she took over after her father died, to appear front and center in a Trump ad — however, you can clearly see the facade of her store with an apron-wearing actor standing in front of it 19 seconds into the spot.
In fact, Kiley had no idea her store was being featured in the ad until she started receiving angry calls from customers asking whether or not she and her business stood behind the candidate.
“My concern is, our image is being connected with a particular candidate,” Kiley said. “It just feels invasive and intrusive. Plus the fact that we were misled.”
A spokesman for Trump’s campaign in Pennsylvania later claimed in an email that “the production company hired to film the stock images received permission from the store manager to film at the location,” however, Kiley claims that someone from the crew simply came into the store and informed a cashier that they would be filming “up and down the street” that day. Even the actor claimed that he was “just a model” and didn’t know what he was being filmed for, whether or not that is true.
Likewise, Calvin Anderson, a Philadelphia union worker for the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association, had a similar story when one of the campaign’s film crews approached him.
Daniel Stepano, the union’s general president, said in the letter that Anderson was on a job site July 9 when a film crew approached him and coworkers.
“He and others were intentionally misled and not told that his photo or image would be used for the specific purpose of a Donald Trump campaign advertisement,” wrote Stepano, who called on Trump to take down the ad and noted that Anderson said he plans to vote for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
For her part, Kiley decided against legal action fearing campaign retaliation and an increase in negative publicity, so as of now the spot is still running. You can just chalk it up as more of what we’ve come to expect from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
(Via Philly.com)