Bert and Ernie featured in ad for at-home STD testing product

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

An STD testing product company called Matley is under fire after the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were featured in one of its ads.

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The pair of famous friends, who have long been rumored to be lovers and have been the subject of several social media memes to that effect, are featured in the ad and are seen looking through papers in the Facebook post, which is captioned, “See Ernie, you’ve got nothing to worry about, everything is positive!”

The post is accompanied by Matley’s words: “Help us take STD Testing out of the Stone Age.”

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The use of the iconic characters caught the attention of the Sesame Street creators, who were upset at the use of their likenesses.

“The Matley ad is an unauthorized, unlicensed use of our characters,” Elizabeth W. Fishman, Vice President of Strategic Communications, told The Post. “We will be contacting Mately and the appropriate parties with a cease and desist letter instructing them to take this down.”

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Matley took down the image and issued an apology.

“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.”

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