Set aside politics for now. Let's talk about strategy.
The Harris-Walz campaign has dramatically increased their support in the past few weeks. As someone who has watched this marketing campaign unfold, I think they've made a series of brilliant moves that have had a direct impact on polling numbers.
In particular, they've figured out how to manage the emotional tone of the campaign, by pulling voters out of a doom spiral, finding joy at key moments, and working into a platform of talking points that gets things back to serious politics.
Doom and Gloom
This all started on June 27th when President Biden had a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump. There was already a general lack of enthusiasm for Biden as a candidate, and the debate sealed the perception that Biden was indeed no longer capable of running for a second term, let alone as a viable alternative to Donald Trump.
As a result, the framing of the choice between Biden and Trump became even more negative than it had been--there were online comments like "I'd vote for a refrigerator over Trump" that framed the choice entirely as one of voting against Trump. There was nothing positive or exciting about the Biden vote.
The whole election was set up in terms of this life or death choice of fascism or democracy, and now democracy didn't even appear to be a viable outcome. There was no real positive vision or plan for bringing the next generation into politics. It just seemed like it was inevitable that Trump would win, and then we'd quickly learn what the recent supreme court ruling + Trump's ambitions could produce in a second term.
People were desperate for even small scraps of hope.
The Coconut and Brat Memes
About three days before Biden announced he was stepping down and supporting Harris in his place, I started seeing Kamala memes on TikTok. It had just been announced in the media that Biden was going to likely step down that weekend, and the meme machines had already started, with celebrities like Kesha using the "you think you just fell out of a coconut tree" sound-byte in viral videos.
This is the general meme that people knew Harris for. Where she had once been mocked for the line, she was now becoming an internet icon for the same thing. There were all sorts of musical remixes of the line, such as one video that took the soundbyte and made a MarioKart theme, or others that remixed Kamala sound bytes into Beyoncé songs.
The Gen Z minds behind the more informal and meme-ified Kamala HQ TikTok were quick to use these sounds, repost content that was going viral, and make original content. Other trends quickly followed, including connecting the ubiquitous Brat summer memes (based on Charli XCX's album release of the same name) to the Harris campaign.
This all resulted in one of the more absurd political television exchanges on Fox News, in which a guest responded to hosts noting that being a brat is bad with the line "you don't understand the essence of brat summer."
But it was exactly this kind of unserious content that felt so refreshing to audiences after all the doom and gloom and high stakes. It was fun.
The Atlanta Rally
The meme hype had not yet transferred into concrete policy or real-life crowds. Harris' Atlanta rally was the first in person test of the energy built online. With a large crowd, a short performance from Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion, and an appearance from Quavo of the Migos, the rally continued the fun vibes.
Importantly, it also appeared young. Megan Thee Stallion is on the cusp between Gen Z and Millenials, and Quavo is firmly within the Millenial demographic. Though not much policy talk beyond reproductive rights seemed to stick beyond this rally, it continued to build momentum.
The Democratic National Convention
The DNC was a highly energetic conclusion to the early Harris campaign, featuring speakers from widely different positions on the political spectrum, though notably no Palestinian speakers. The Clintons were back, as were the Obamas with some catchy one-liners. But the tone had shifted somewhat significantly from both of those prior eras (more on this in a moment).
After a raucus rollcall with music from each state and a surprise performance by Lil Jon for Georgia's delegates, the word of the first three days of the convention was joy. Oprah solidified the theme with one of her classic calls to the audience.
On the fourth day of the DNC, Harris gave her speech, which took on a much more serious tone. She spent about the first 10 minutes telling her story, humanizing herself and explaining her values through her history. She then used her history as a prosecutor to frame herself against Trump and project a strong image, perhaps most notably through her line that she will ensure the US has the strongest and most lethal fighting force.
Other policy goals on affordable housing and international relations were included in the speech, but rather than diving into the details, Harris projected the image of herself as Commander in Chief. The speech was polarizing for some segments of the Democratic party, but it was meant to appeal to moderates and undecided voters. It also returned to some of the high stakes rhetoric about the threats of a Trump presidency, but this time the underlying tone and energy in the room had shifted significantly towards feeling powerful.
The Couch in the Room
While the 2024 vibes mirror the hope and change optimism of the Obama era, the "when they go low we go high" slogan has become passé. There have been more direct attacks on Trump and Vance, including the charge that they're "weird," Walz's echoing of the irreverent Vance couch memes at a rally, and Obama's hand gesture when talking about Trump's obsession with crowd sizes.
These attacks have been effective because they attack Trump and Vance directly in terms of the values that Trump and Vance already recognize (the opposite of Clinton's mistake when she insulted voters on the basis of her own values with the "basket of deplorables" comment).
At the same time, the best attacks Trump and Vance can come up with are insulting Kamala's laugh, rehashing Birtherism, and doubling down on the childless cat lady insult. This has left Trump and Vance looking decidedly weak, which is antithetical to their core branding.
There are some really complicated ethical questions here that I hope to write on soon, but as a political strategy, the direct attacks are highly effective. They have helped shift the paradigm from "look at these powerful autocrats who will inevitably win, we've got to somehow vote for this other terrible option instead" to "look at these weak losers who don't represent America, we've got a competent candidate who isn't perfect but who we can work with."
The memes were a crucial part of that emotional transition.
Image Source: NBC Chicago
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