Northern exposure for Obama

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is receiving some unexpected exposure in the skies over north America, it has been revealed.

The politician’s name is emblazoned across the underside of a giant inflatable pig lost over the state of California.

His name appears alongside the image of a checked ballot box on the pig’s underbelly, reports the Associated Press (AP).

It broke free from its moorings at the recent Coachella music festival - and has not been seen since.

Spokesperson Marcee Rondan told the newswire: “It wasn’t really supposed to happen that way - I don’t have the details.”

The porcine escape occurred during the closing set of the music festival as Pink Floyd vocalist Roger Waters belted out a rendition of the band’s 1977 song Pigs.

Waters was heard to exclaim “that’s my pig!” as the porker rose into the sky, the AP reports.

Posts on the music festival’s message board suggest that the pig may not have survived its journey after sections of vinyl have been found distributed across a distance of some city blocks in La Quinta, California.

Contributors ruminate that the lower air pressure at high altitudes could have resulted in the balloon exploding as it rose into the sky.