Staff Reports
The Biden campaign is looking to better connect with young people by bringing on someone to manage its content and meme pages, as the president’s reelection campaign faces challenges in winning over Gen Z voters.
The campaign is seeking to hire a partner to oversee the campaign’s internet content, including memes, according to a job posting on Daybook.
Memes have become a significant way for presidential candidates to reach voters in this election cycle.
The Biden campaign has even embraced the meme “Dark Brandon,” which portrays an alter-ego of President Biden. The meme originated from a reporter mishearing chants of “F— Joe Biden” as “Let’s Go, Brandon” during an interview with race winner Brandon Brown at the Talladega racetrack in 2021.
Biden campaign to hire meme manager as president struggles for support from young votershttps://t.co/t63gFfba7O pic.twitter.com/zl4Y2RMBRG
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) May 22, 2024
Initially used as a way to criticize President Biden, the campaign has leaned into the meme and made it their own. The Dark Brandon image has even become the profile picture for the Biden-Harris HQ page on X, featuring Mr. Biden with red lasers shooting out of his eyes.
The campaign has used the Dark Brandon image in various contexts, including after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl, and to respond to a viral conspiracy theory about rigging the game for a Biden endorsement by Taylor Swift.
The Biden campaign has also used memes to troll former President Trump, including a post celebrating the stock market reaching the 40,000 mark and a banter about an ice cream cone serving an “L” or “loss” to Mr. Trump.
The adoption of memes by the Biden campaign could be an attempt to engage with Gen Z voters, a group where Mr. Biden is struggling to gain support. Recent polling shows that Mr. Trump leads Mr. Biden among younger voters, despite this group traditionally leaning Democratic.
Some experts believe that Mr. Biden’s response to the Israel-Hamas conflict and his recent ban on TikTok may be contributing factors to the decreased support from young voters.
The ban on TikTok, particularly popular among adults ages 18-34, has drawn criticism from Rep. Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Gen Z in Congress, who believes that banning TikTok will not be helpful in reaching young voters.
With the election looming, the Biden campaign is making efforts to appeal to Gen Z through the use of memes and internet content management.
