• Horse {they/them}@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    5 days ago

    “we’re going to do memes to engage with The Youth™!” declares people who are notorious for killing memes stone dead simply by using them

    • ReadFanon [any, any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      4 days ago

      The messaging is so bizarre.

      It’s signalling to the base but it’s also trying to be edgy and hip but it’s also (badly) targeting a demographic too young to vote and it’s not targeting the actual younger voting demographic in a way that’s gonna resonate with them. Most of it requires a lot of intertextual political knowledge and insider baseball to make sense of the messaging in the attempts at memes.

      It feels like all of it is a 40 year old political consultant’s idea of what an undecided 20 year old needs to hear about Kamala through a shoddy attempt at meme formats:

      “Who do you trust on abortion?”

      “Vance and Trump.”

      “Women.”

      omg le epic ownage 😏

      The messaging is so muddy.

      Kamala wasn’t ever strong on her campaign with regards to abortion rights since she was chasing the GOP as they ran further to the right so it’s not like she’s known for being the staunch pro-choice candidate. So who “women” refers to feels so vague and, unless you’re immediately thinking of Kamala Harris at every moment (i.e. avid K-holers who are gonna vote for her no matter what), then undecided people who are political disengaged and swing voters aren’t gonna stare at that “meme” and connect the notion of trusting women to the notion of trusting Kamala to the notion that it’s promising that Kamala will defend women’s right to healthcare.

      It’s also really weak willed since it’s Walz, a man, saying to trust women. So within the “diegetic” of the so-called meme, there’s one woman and she’s a journalist asking the question so it feels like she doesn’t really know? It’s just not a good tweet at all.

      Even the bio is smug and posturing - “Elon wouldn’t let us have @headquarters”. That comes off as really entitled. It’s not like headquarters is something that feels like KamalaHQ has a justifiable right to. It’s just a vague term. Undecided people aren’t gonna look at that and think “Gee, Elon is mean and Kamala is the victim here” they’re gonna think “Why would you have a right to that Twitter handle just because you decided that your campaign name was going to be called Headquarters and why would anyone be okay with you getting to steal @Headquarters from someone else?” Idk maybe I’m too clouded by my own perspective but I just don’t see a focus group really connecting with the idea that Elon Musk has snubbed the campaign or that there’s injustice at play here, it just feels like entitlement.

    • oscardejarjayes [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      4 days ago

      Even college students did 6-7, I’ve seen it. It might’ve started with Gen Alpha, but it spread to Gen Z, who are as old as like 30 now.

      But the real issue is that it’s too little, too late. They could’ve pulled 6-7 off if it was earlier, and perhaps if they made the 6-7 reference actually make sense.

    • stink@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      4 days ago

      McKinsey consultants have determined renaming it to 1488 would garner 2% of the republican vote