Robert F Kennedy Jr deletes campaign photo after Russia details spotted

Robert F Kennedy Jr, who aims to challenge incumbent Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary, scrambled to change a merchandise photo after the original appeared to have been taken in Russia.

On Wednesday, Mr Kennedy's campaign posted a photo of a young woman in a Kennedy 2024 hoodie walking down the sidewalk holding a coffee.

"Join the movement to save our nation! Get the incredible Kennedy Collection today and proudly stand with Robert F Kennedy, Jr. Every purchase fuels his fight for our families and a brighter future. Let's unite America," Mr Kennedy Jr said in a Twitter post alongside the photo.

All the talk of saving and uniting the nation was blunted when Mr Kennedy and his team learned the photos were not only not from the US, but were likely taken in Russia.

A number of signs appear in the photo behind the woman in the hoodie. One appears to be a collapsible sidewalk chalkboard cafe sign, the second is a typical above-door shop sign, and a third, seen in the reflection of the windows behind the woman, is a blue and white rectangle. Each sign is covered in Cyrillic letters.

The original photo is from a fashion photography and mockup service provided by a Russian artist.

Deborah Muller, a publicist who uses the same software in her work, tweeted a layman's explanation of the program used to create the image — and to chide Mr Kennedy's team.

"It's made with a mockup generator called PlaceIt. It is used by businesses to mock up designs without using real models. Of course, there are hundreds of other choices he could've gone for instead of this one if his campaign bothered checking," she wrote.

Mr Kennedy's team later took the photo with the Cyrillic text down and replaced it with one of another young woman, holding a melon and wearing a Kennedy 2024 t-shirt.

The new image still didn’t quite hit the mark; the young woman holding the melon in the photo was not in Russia, but was she also not in the US; she was in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The replacement photo appears to show the back of the Ibrahim Nobre statue in Sao Paulo’s Ibirapuera Park. The model is standing on a white ramp that can be seen in photos taken from in front of the statue.

The Independent has reached out to the Kennedy campaign for comment.

Mr Kennedy is not the first politician to try to pass off Russian locations as depictions of the US in official campaign media.

Last October, just before she lost her gubernatorial race in Arizona, Republican Kari Lake made a campaign video including a stock video of Russian soldiers. The context of the video suggests they were supposed to portray the US National Guard, according to HuffPost.

Doug Mastriano, another failed Republican gubernatorial candidate, also used footage from a Russian propaganda video in his campaign materials, Insider reported at the time.

Just before the end of the year the House Republicans also released a "Commitment to America" video filled with stock footage from Ukraine and Russia.