When you're a gubernatorial candidate from Scranton, you don't necessarily have a lot going for you. So it makes sense that Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty decided to tap into one of the coolest things about his town – The Office.
Yesterday the Doherty campaign put up a video on their website entitled "The Office Parody Video." The minute-long short featured clips from the NBC hit and a running narrative about the longstanding belief that the Pennsylvania governor's office rotates between political parties every eight years. Democratic Doherty, according to the video, could break that cycle.
But as we watched the antics of Michael Scott, PhillyClout wondered: Did the campaign ask permission to do this?
As it turns out, no.
After we brought the video to their attention, NBC Universal asked the Doherty campaign to take it down. Said an NBC Universal spokesman: "Once we were made aware of the usage of the clips from "The Office" on Mayor Doherty's gubernatorial website, we asked them to discontinue using them and they gladly obliged."
The network declined to discuss the exact reasons for the request. But apparently there is a formal process to ask permission to use clips.
Doherty spokesman Mark Nevins acknowledged that the campaign had not asked to use the clips ahead of time.
"Frankly, I think we probably could have argued that it was legitimate use of the material for the purpose of a parody. But the mayor's enjoyed a good relationship with the folks at NBC and The Office for a long time and they asked and we took it down," Nevins said.