Bert and Ernie now mascots for at-home STD testing

by Austin Stallings

Journalism Intern

Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie continue to be the closest of friends, so close that they even take their at-home STD tests together.

The makers of a new, at-home testing service for people to test for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are in trouble for using the children’s character duo in a campaign.

The company is called Matley, their goal is “to take STD testing out of the Stone Age.”

The ad shows Bert and Ernie looking at a set of papers, with Bert in shock.

‘See Ernie, you’ve got nothing to worry about, everything is positive!’ the caption reads.

According to Gay Star News, Matley is asking for 500,000 in donations on their Indiegogo fundraising page. The company describes itself as ‘combining home collection, lab testing, and dating app integration’ and will work on a $30 a month subscription.

Unfortunately for Matley, this episode of Sesame Street was brought to them with a cease and disease letter.

‘The Mately ad is an unauthorized, unlicensed use of our characters,’ Elizabeth W. Fishman, vice president of strategic communications, said. ‘We will be contacting Mately and the appropriate parties with a cease and desist letter instructing them to take this down.’

The company removed the image and issued a statement.

‘We sincerely apologize if we offended anyone or if any images were use inappropriately,’ said Brandon Greenberg, CEO of Mately. ‘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.’

The Gayly- 5/4/2016 @ 11:30 a.m. CDT