Peaky Blinders 'Strongly Disapproves' Of Ron Desantis Using Footage For Campaign
The minds behind Netflix's hit series "Peaky Blinders" are speaking out against presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis after he used footage from their show in a... controversial campaign ad.
After DeSantis' campaign released a frankly bizarre mishmash of an ad that throws in photos of bodybuilders as well as footage of Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby, Leonardo DiCaprio's Jordan Belfort ("The Wolf of Wall Street"), and Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman ("American Psycho"), as well as headlines touting the deeply restrictive laws and restrictions he's enacted against Florida's LGBTQ+ community.
On Instagram, the people behind "Peaky Blinders" made it clear that they never gave the Florida governor permission to use this footage. "On behalf of the partners of 'Peaky Blinders' — Steven Knight, Cillian Murphy, Caryn Mandabach Prods., Tiger Aspect Prods, and Banijay Rights — we confirm the footage of Tommy Shelby's character used within the video posted by Ron DeSantis' campaign was obtained without permission or official licence. We do not support nor endorse the video's narrative and strongly disapprove of the use of the content in this manner."
Ron DeSantis' ad features a ton of pop culture references, all of which are pretty weird
As was previously mentioned, DeSantis also uses Jordan Belfort (a Wall Street top dog who ends up going to prison after committing a litany of financial crimes) and Patrick Bateman (a literal murderer) as images in the video, which was tweeted out on June 30, 2023. Posted by an account called DeSantisWarRoom, the tweet includes a caption referring to Pride Month, which is especially odious, considering that it then goes on to detail the "draconian" laws DeSantis has engineered as well as the fact that he's deeply against drag performances.
This is, to be certain, deeply, deeply weird, no matter which way you spin it — and weird is an understatement considering that DeSantis is using the fact that he relentlessly antagonizes the LGBTQ+ community as a huge plus to get people to vote for him for President. There's also footage of former president Donald Trump saying he does support the LGBTQ+ community — though most wouldn't call him much of an ally either, honestly — making it perfectly clear where DeSantis' interests lie.
Speaking of Trump, he once got himself in hot water after using the "Game of Thrones" font in a meme, so it's certainly not the first time that a politician has co-opted pop culture for their own gain. Tommy Shelby, Jordan Belfort, and Patrick Bateman are... iffy role models, though, and the creators and actor behind at least one of those figures wants the Florida governor to knock it off.