"We are aware": Pokémon issues statement after DHS releases a video featuring Ash Ketchum and the series' theme song

The Pokémon Company International has released a statement after the Department of Homeland Security used Pokémon's anime theme song and footage in an ICE raid video.

In a statement to Variety on September 12, the company clarified that the content was posted without its consent.

"We are aware of a recent video posted by the Department of Homeland Security that includes imagery and language associated with our brand. Out company was not invovled in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the yse of our intellectual property."

The Department of Homeland Security posted a video on September 22, featuring a montage of arrests made by border patrol and ICE agents, set to the anime's theme song, which includes the phrase, "Gotta catch'em all." The video also features footage from the opening credits of the anime TV with the main character Ash Ketchum.

The video ends with fake Pokémon trading cards accompanied by mugshots of men and women arrested by the ICE and their alleged crimes, including manslaughter, pedo*hilia, burglary, child endangerment, and murder.

"I wouldn't touch this," says Pokémon's veteran legal chief about not taking action for unauthorised use of video

Netizens took to social media platforms to highlight DHS' unauthorised use of the anime theme song and video in their social media content. They called for the companies to launch legal action. However, the company's veteran ex-legal chief, Don McGowan, while speaking to IG,N said that the company is unlikely to take legal action,

"I don't see them doing anything about this for a few reasons. First, think of how little you see (the company's) name in the press. They are INSANELY publicity-shy and prefer to let the brand be the brand."

He then added,

"Second, many of their execs in the USA are on green cards. Even if I was still at the company I wouldn't touch this, and I'm the most trigger-happy CLO (Chief Legal Officer) I've ever met. This will blow over in a couple of days and they'll be happy to let it."

This is not the first time the Department of Homeland Security has used intellectual property without consent. On September 23, comedian Theo Von posted a statement after the government organization used one of his audio clips in a since-deleted video about illegal immigrant deportations.

Von asked DHS to take the video down and keep him out of their "banger" deportation videos since his thoughts about immigration are "more nuanced than this video allows."

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