Hennigan ad ruffles sculptor's feathers

Some things should be off limits. Like Mrs. Mallard. Like Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, and Pack.

So says Nancy Schon, the sculptor who made the likenesses of Robert McCloskey's famous ducks that are in Boston's Public Garden and who considers herself a guardian of his beloved story, ''Make Way for Ducklings."

She is calling Maura Hennigan's new television commercial -- which spoofs the book and accuses Mayor Thomas M. Menino of ducking issues -- a ''disgraceful" political ploy.

''It has nothing to do with politics, and to use it as a political ploy . . . I'm so upset and angry, I can't even tell you," Schon said.

The West Newton artist said that McCloskey, who died in 2003, closely guarded his feathered characters and wouldn't have approved of the ad.

''He wouldn't let people do T-shirts from the book," she said. ''He didn't want anything that was commercial or political."

For that reason, Schon said, she has declined many requests to replicate the statue since it was installed in the Garden in 1987.

''Hundreds of people have asked me to put those ducks in all over the world," she said. ''If he were alive today and saw this sculpture being used as a political football, he would be furious."

However, there is more to the saga than meets the eye. Schon, who has never seen the ad, said she is highly partisan in the race for mayor.

''He is a person of the people," she said of Menino. ''I love him."

As for Hennigan, she said, ''I don't like anything I hear about her."

Schon said she did not know about the ads until she ran into Menino at an event Sunday night and the mayor told her about it. She said she called his office the next morning and was directed to a newspaper article about the ad.

The ''Make Way for Menino" ad, which began airing yesterday on Comcast cable stations, features a series of drawings, done in McCloskey's instantly recognizable chalk-drawing style, of the mayor racing around Beacon Hill.

''He's ducking the issues again," croaks the narrator.

Schon said Hennigan is destroying a story about ''families and lovely things."

Since McCloskey's book was published in 1941, his ducklings have become an indelible piece of Boston culture. Parents flock to the Public Garden sculptures near the corner of Beacon and Charles streets to photograph their children astride the ducks.

Each Mother's Day, the city holds a ''Make Way for Ducklings" parade, in which children dress up in costume to celebrate the story. Menino regularly attends the event with his grandchildren, often reading some of the story aloud.

Hennigan was unapologetic about using the fictional fowl for political purposes, saying, ''The mayor already did that when reading 'Make Way for Ducklings' on [public] access television." she said.

Hennigan said the response so far has been positive. She said she was not concerned about Schon's objections. ''Her sculptures are not in my commercials, but she's entitled to her opinion," she said. ''That's what America's all about."