Don't mess with Bert and Ernie.
After the STD testing kit company Mately used the characters in an ad promoting STD awareness, Sesame Street threatened to sue.
"The Mately ad is an unauthorized, unlicensed use of our characters. We will be contacting Mately and the appropriate parties with a cease and desist letter instructing them to take this down," a Sesame Workshop spokesperson told TMZ.
Mately has since removed the characters from its site. "We sincerely apologize if we offended anyone or if any images were use inappropriately," a Mately spokesperson told Complex in a statement.
"This was inspired from an image that was obtained from a meme circulating around social media. This was by no means part of an advertising campaign intended to tarnish the Sesame Street brand, but we recognize the issue and all versions of this image have been removed from all Mately websites and social media pages."
This isn't the first time Sesame Street took legal action on behalf of Bert and Ernie. In 2002, Sesame Workshop also threatened to sue Peter Spears, the director of a spoof on the hand puppets that depicted them as a gay couple, according to ABC.
And in 1993, when rumors about the characters' sexual orientation started to come out, the company released a press release stating, "Bert and Ernie, who've been on Sesame Street for 25 years, do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future. They are puppets, not humans."
Apparently, those rumors have continued, because Sesame Workshop released yet another statement in 2011 explaining, "Bert and Ernie are best friends. ... Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets™ do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation."
Defending the reputation of hand puppets is clearly hard work.
Sesame Workshop did not immediately return Complex's request for comment.
