FILE - President Joe Biden puts on sunglasses after making a joke about becoming the"Dark Brandon" persona during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, April 29, 2023. – Whether it’s a grinning Joe Biden as “Dark Brandon” or Donald Trump’s face superimposed onto a scene from HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” both presidential campaigns this year have embraced digital memes, the lingua franca of social media.
With the rise of internet culture, digital memes have skyrocketed in popularity. They often take the form of visual content like an image or a video with some kind of message that speaks to people who get it because of some knowledge they have or membership in a particular group. Memes don't have to be funny or satirical, but that makes them more likely to be shared widely.
“If you do it well, you tap into something that the group agrees upon or is feeling suspicious about; you tap into something that connects with the audience,” said Rebecca Ortiz, an associate professor of advertising at Syracuse University who has researched the influence of memes around political identity.Biden's campaign has created its own stockpile of photos and videos for distribution on official Biden-related accounts.
The campaign did not offer any details about its digital team or its use of memes. Spokesperson Steven Cheung issued a statement calling out Biden's videotaped flubs of speeches and moments of apparent confusion.What are some examples of their content?