Pokémon Company International on Thursday pushed back against the White House’s repeated use of its intellectual property after the administration published a “Make America Great Again” meme on social media that used an image from its latest game with recognizable characters like Pikachu and Magikarp.
“We are aware of recent social content that includes imagery associated with our brand,” Sravanthi Dev, a company spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property. Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda.”
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When asked previously about its social media strategy, Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the administration, said, “Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the president’s extremely popular agenda.” She added, “There’s a reason so many people try to copy our style — our message resonates.”
It was the second time the Pokémon Company has released a statement clarifying that it never allowed the White House to use its intellectual property. The company took issue with the Department of Homeland Security in September when the agency used its “Gotta catch ‘em all” slogan in a video that interspersed clips of its anime series with images of Border Patrol and ICE agents arresting people.
The White House’s latest meme used an image from Pokémon Pokopia, a spinoff game that the company released this week.
Despite complaints from the gaming industry, the Trump administration has continued to produce memes using intellectual property from video game series like Halo, Minecraft and Stardew Valley. On Wednesday, the White House posted a video on social media that mixed footage from its bombing operations in Iran with gameplay from the Call of Duty series.
Zachary Small is a Times reporter writing about the art world’s relationship to money, politics and technology.
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