Elmo is still out of work. And he’s hoping people will open their wallets to help him and his friend at PBS.
The creators behind the viral post about Elmo getting fired from “Sesame Street” — purportedly pink-slipped because of President Trump’s campaign to defund PBS — have brought the fan-favorite red monster back on a new fundraising site.
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“Elmo was defunded by the government and lost his job. Elmo did what people do when they need job. Elmo posted on LinkedIn,” the site, elmoopentowork.com, says.
LinkedIn pulled down the fake Elmo account of his sad layoff news shortly after it was posted. But it still got more than 5 billion impressions organically, according to the team behind the stunt. “Elmo was like, wow, Elmo can’t even count up to 5 billion,” the new site says.
“But Elmo didn’t do this just for his job, Elmo did this to save all of his friends at PBS,” the site continues. “Because if PBS goes away, so do Curious George, Clifford, Arthur and so many more. Elmo is now on a mission to save all his friends’ jobs at PBS by saving PBS.”
The site includes a link to PBS’s donation landing page. It’s also selling merch to help raise money for PBS (Elmo’s Networking Cap, $29.99; Elmo’s Last Day Shirt, $39.99; and a “Ooooooh Elmo Likes Keychains” keychain, $14.99).
The Elmo Open to Work site launched as Trump has aimed to pull all federal funding from PBS and other public media orgs. On June 3, the Trump administration formally sent Congress a “rescission” request to claw back nearly $1.1 billion in federal funds that had already been approved over the next two years for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides funding to local NPR and PBS stations. Congress has a 45-day window (until July 18) to either approve or ignore the proposal.
Meanwhile, PBS and NPR have both sued Trump and other White House officials over his May 1 executive order instructing the CPB to cease funding them to the “maximum extent allowed by law.” Three CPB board members have sued Trump to try to block his attempt to fire them.
To be sure, PBS and “Sesame Street” aren’t completely high and dry. First, federal funding is only a small portion of their overall budgets. In addition, Sesame Workshop recently announced a new deal with Netflix, giving the streamer exclusive worldwide premiere rights to “Sesame Street” starting with Season 56 later this year. Netflix also gained rights to 90 hours of past episodes of the show and will also be able to develop video games for both “Sesame Street” and “Sesame Street Mecha Builders.”
The Elmo Open to Work site, like the original viral LinkedIn post, is the brainchild of Mary Adam, a senior copywriter at ad agency Leo Burnett. Adam said she’s doing this without any involvement with Sesame Workshop or PBS: “I’m just doing this on my own to help save PBS.” The new site lets visitors create profile pictures for people to show support for their favorite PBS character, and it features resumes for people to apply for jobs as PBS characters.
About the original LinkedIn post, Adam said the service removed the account “because they said Elmo is a fake character and only real humans can have a LinkedIn.”
A rep for Sesame Workshop didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Elmo Open to Work. In an earlier statement about Trump’s proposed funding cuts, the organization said, “Sesame Workshop and PBS have a shared commitment to using the power of public television to bring critical early learning to children across the country… We remain firmly in support of the vital public investment that allows PBS to continue this important work.”
Adam said the site is a side project outside of work. She’s being assisted by Leo Burnett colleagues Kyle Poff, George Apfelbach and Lucy Brizzolara, and Kevin McGlone of independent agency HoneyWired.
The fine print on Adam’s site, by the way, includes this disclaimer: “ElmoOpentoWork.com is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Sesame Workshop, PBS, or any of their programs or characters. Sesame Street® and Elmo® are registered trademarks of Sesame Workshop®. All character names and related trademarks are the property of Sesame Workshop, PBS, subsidiaries and partners of PBS, or are property of their respective owners. All are used here for commentary or parody purposes only.”
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