YouTube Yanks Obama Ad With NBC Newsmen

YouTube has pulled Barack Obama’s “Bad News” ad from its website after the NBC network complained it did not give permission to the Obama campaign to use footage of several of its on-air personalities featured in the ad.

NBC had demanded the Obama campaign suspend using the ad altogether, which included footage of former “Nightly News” anchor and “Meet the Press” moderator Tom Brokaw along with commentator Keith Olbermann.

The Obama campaign had put a disclaimer at the end of the ad saying NBC did not approve of the usage, AdWeek reported, but refused to sack the ad.

“Our legal team is still in discussions with the Obama campaign about our request for them to cease and desist,” an NBC spokesman told AdWeek, while calling the clip “outrageous.”

–Michael O’Brien