White House objects ad featuring Obama girls

Washington, Aug 12: The White House counsel had asked the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to withdraw a new unauthorized ad campaign featuring President Barack Obama's two young daughters - Sasha and Malia.

Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs expressed displeasure at unauthorized use for advertising. He said, "Without getting into the specifics, we've been very clear, I think, from even before the administration started that their two girls would have a very private life, and we want to protect that private life and their privacy."

He also said, "And we hope that others will be respectful, as many in the media have been, about not using the girls as a publicity stunt."

The nonprofit group that advocates nutrition reform put up posters in D.C.'s Union Station Metro stop that picture an 8-year-old girl with a thought bubble above her head that reads: "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?"

According to Washington Post, within 24 hours after the signs went up, the White House asked the Physicians Committee to take them down.

But the group's president, Neal Barnard, declined to comply. The White House has slapped down commercial uses of the first daughters in the past.

ANI