This is no joke: According to a job posting, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign needs someone to manage memes. He “Partner Manager, Content Pages and MemesThe hire will “initiate and manage daily operations to attract top content and meme pages on the Internet.” The job pays up to $85,000.
Yes, it’s absurd to be a professional meme manager. But in this era, digital organizing is as valuable as real-life campaigning at a farmers market. If a candidate tries to reach voters where they are, then he needs to be online, where going viral can mean connecting with millions of people. That is why the Biden campaign has a tiktok accounteven though the president signed a bill that could effectively ban the app.
“I believe we can and should infuse relevant, modern and fun moments into the way we communicate, especially on digital platforms.” Annie Wu Henry, a creator and digital communications strategist told TechCrunch in February. “But while we do that, we must continue to be strategic, intentional and conscious, even if it’s a meme.”
Even before making this hire, Biden’s campaign had already relied on memes to attract voters. The Dark Brandon meme, which stems from far-right conspiracy theories about the president, has been so ubiquitous in Biden campaign accounts that it seems outdated. But people seem to love it: Last August, Dark Brandon merch represented 54% of total tent revenueaccording to Axios.
Former President Donald Trump has also embraced memes as he campaigns for his return to the White House. When Trump’s mugshot unsurprisingly went viral, his campaign immediately began selling T-shirts, mugs, and beer glasses featuring the image, accompanied by text that reads, “Never give up.”
Biden is far from the first candidate to realize that what happens online can influence an election. For as long as social media has existed, it has been a valuable tool for political organizers, but the pandemic accelerated campaigns’ adoption of digital tactics. When Ed Markey (D-MA) ran for reelection to the Senate in 2020, Gen Z posters across the country invented “the keyverse market” an organic online movement to ensure a climate-friendly senator keeps his seat. Meanwhile, anonymous online personality Memes Organizer has been hosting meme workouts for political organizations such as the South Carolina Young Democrats. In these trainings, participants collaboratively create memes, discuss what makes a good meme, and learn how to use existing meme templates to react in real time to breaking political news.
Given the Biden administration’s potential to ban TikTok, young people may be able to see past the campaign’s attempt to woo them with memes. But at the very least, embracing social media is proof that a campaign is at least trying to appeal to a younger demographic.
