Kamala Harris becomes Gen Z's queen

The devil works hard, but Kamala Harris' marketing team works harder.

Following the announcement of Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential campaign, her team has been working overtime.

Their task? To turn around the public perception of the Democratic Party after a certain sleepy someone ran it into the ground.

And it seems to be working. With half of Hollywood and the internet endorsing Harris, we might just see the first president to be both a woman, and person of colour, ever.

But first, the Vice President has some serious PR work to do for her own brand.

And the Trump campaign is already positioning itself for the attack on Harris and her somewhat spotted past.

In many ways, Kamala Harris is a shining example of the American Dream. The daughter of immigrants, she attended Howard University, one of the top schools in the U.S.

She became the San Francisco District Attorney in 2003. And after a successful run, she won the election to become the California Attorney General in 2010. In 2016, she won a seat as a U.S. Senator from California.

Harris has gone from strength to strength. She would be a great role model for young women if she were to become president, particularly for women of colour.

However, she's not without her critics.

Her time spent as a prosecutor, and her record on criminal justice issues, has led some to say Harris is not the progressive reformer she claims to be.

In fact, they believe she's actually a relic of the 'tough on crime' era in the ‘90s.

Once upon a time, Democrats embraced the 'tough on crime' policies that swelled prison populations. A generation later, activists are pushing to fix those flaws, and make the criminal justice system less inordinate (and racist.)

When Harris ran for president in the 2019 Democratic primaries, progressives criticised her for being too harsh in her approach as a prosecutor.

Harris drew scrutiny during her time as San Francisco DA for seeking to charge parents of chronically truant students. She sought higher bails for defendants charged with gun offences. And she prosecuted more than 1,900 marijuana cases.

Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democratic congresswoman at the time, claimed that Harris 'put people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.'

So it's no surprise that her presidential campaign was met with a viral meme 'Kamala is a Cop.' The meme featured photoshopped images of Harris wearing police gear and arresting black children.

People used the meme in tweets, joking about the minor infractions she might arrest them for, like wearing white after Labor Day. A video of Harris waving at undocumented children in a detention centre was circulated out of context. All of this bad press eventually led to the downfall of her campaign.

Yikessss.

But that was then, and this is now.

Harris’s team appears to be embracing the internet to work for, not against, her campaign this time.

It's clear they’re trying to capture Gen Z voters, positioning her as the younger, smarter candidate.

Her first move? Riding the wave of Charli XCX’s brat campaign.

Yes, you read that right.

On Monday, President Biden’s former campaign profile on X began sporting a neon green banner inscribed with 'kamala hq.' Obviously, this was a nod to the ever-so popular Brat album that’s on everybody’s playlists at the moment.

This comes after a viral tweet from Charli herself claiming 'kamala IS brat.'

The X account's bio only contains the words 'providing context,' a reference to the widely-shared memes made from clips of one of her most famous speeches.

Of course, the internet, as it so often does, has gone crazy with it.

The tag #kamalaharris is trending on TikTok, amassing over 100 million views in the last 7 days. And fan-made videos are gaining equal amounts of traction.

Even Harris’s own campaign page has started using alternative pop-star Chappell Roans ‘Femininomenon’ with Harris quotes. This is boosting her profile among Gen Z and active social media users, particularly the female audience.

This pop-culture-themed strategy seems to be working.

Her team raised more than $81 million in the 24-hour period after Biden’s announcement, campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said on Monday.

The massive haul represents the largest 24-hour sum reported by either side in the 2024 campaign. In fact, Harris’ campaign said it was the largest single-day total in U.S. history.

She then raked in more than $100 million between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, the campaign said early Tuesday.

You see, despite years of circulating memes, criticism, and backlash for her unusual comments and giddy personality – these things all humanised her.

Her brand image has not always worked in her favour, no. But Harris and her team of miracle-working marketers have chosen to embrace these factors instead of spurn them.

Now, instead of the internet laughing at her, they are now laughing with her.

People see it as endearing. Kind of in the same way you see your silly aunt who says some weird sh*t but can get down to business when things get serious.

It’s a risky approach, using an audience that can just as easily turn on you as they adopted you. But there’s no doubt the embrace is exciting supportive voters, particularly after the dread instilled in them by Biden's performance over the last month.

Never have we seen the crossover of internet culture and potential presidency like this.

But it highlights the power of that culture, and the way it can sway the masses. It also goes to show that a rebrand is always possible.

I know we're all keeping our eyes peeled with what happens next in this crazy election.

-Sophie, Writer