Mamdani’s Bob Dylan-Themed Ad Yanked By UMG

Photo Credit: Raph PH / CC by 2.0

Zohran Mamdani’s Bob Dylan-themed ad was removed from X (Twitter) after Universal Music Publishing Group issued a takedown notice.

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani posted one final advertisement before his election night victory, scored by Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” But the campaign video has since been removed from the former Twitter amid a licensing rejection from Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), which owns Dylan’s catalog.

Posted across Mamdani’s social media accounts just before polls closed on Tuesday (November 4), the ad featured the caption “New York is a-changin’” and a montage of scenes from across the 34-year-old’s campaign set to Dylan’s legendary song. The progressive Mamdani was declared the winner on Tuesday night, beating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

But the ad was quickly taken down on X—Elon Musk’s Twitter—and replaced with a copyright takedown notice. UMPG says it has a “longstanding policy” of keeping Bob Dylan’s work out of political projects. However, the video was still available on other social media platforms as of Wednesday night.

“As a longstanding policy, we do not license Bob Dylan compositions for projects involving political figures,” said a spokesperson for UMPG in response to media requests for comment.

Representatives from Instagram and TikTok did not immediately respond to questions as to whether they would also remove the ad, or if they had also received takedown requests.

Individual social media users can soundtrack their videos with songs covered by blanket licenses, but advertisements (political or not) must get clearance from copyright owners via sync licensing. Failure to obtain a sync license for a political video can create potential legal liability—as evidenced by the many artists who have flung lawsuits at the Trump administration for the unauthorized use of their music.

But that doesn’t always mean that such lawsuits will be successful. It’s usually much easier (and cost-effective) to issue a takedown notice to the social media site in question rather than jump right to litigation.

Similarly, Taylor Swift fans are up in arms about a series of TikTok videos posted by the Trump administration featuring “The Fate of Ophelia,” while Zach Bryan’s track “Revival” has been used in similar videos. But whether the artists themselves will issue takedown requests—or file lawsuits—remains to be seen.