Joe Biden’s marketing is as bad as everything else he touches.
One of the best examples, of which there are many, of just how bizarre his political team can be is the Dark Brandon character.
When “Let’s Go Brandon” went viral it obviously ticked off the president’s team. I doubt Sleepy Joe even noticed it because, well, he is not sentient. But it was a double-whammy of a problem for them. It combined an attack on Biden–a more acceptable version of a very rude insult–and an attack on his truly effective communications team, the MSM.
It called out Biden’s incompetence and the lying liars of the media for covering up Biden’s unpopularity.
Dark Brandon was the response. It was supposed to convey strength. In reality, it conveys…well, weirdness. Even VOX calls the meme confusing.
Memes are not supposed to be confusing. They are supposed to be easily understood and have funny hyperbole. They should generate a chuckle and an “oh yeah!” response.
Does this look like the guy you want as your president? He is a Marvel villain, which would be apt but for the fact that the man can barely walk upright anymore. He sort of shuffles. A Marvel character, assuming he is not a villain, might work as a joke campaign mascot.
This? It’s ridiculous.
The Biden campaign is leaning into the whole Dark Brandon thing, and is featuring it on their website. You can even buy a T-shirt aping the meme. Perhaps the intent is to give both Biden lovers and haters a reason to give the president’s campaign money, which I admit would be clever.
But unless you are terminally online, which I admit I am, it is simply confusing. It appeals as much as an invitation to an Oxford debate featuring Kamala Harris and AOC to the average voter.
Yet there it is. The Dark Brandon meme is also featured on the campaign 404 Page, which I have to admit is kinda on-brand. This kind of marketing is indeed sort of lost on the average voter.
I’ve never understood the embrace of Dark Brandon by the Biden comms team. I suppose they think that a confusing meme is superior to a clear admission that nobody particularly cares for their guy and that he is old, weak, and senile. Better to be Conan the Barbarian than a walking SNL skit.
It has been said many times, and it is indubitably true, that the Left can’t meme. They try occasionally, but they don’t seem to get the joke. Or rather, they don’t seem to get that it is supposed to be a joke that strikes home. They go straight to mean–and mean IS part of meming, but it has to be funny first.
The closest they get with Dark Brandon is the eyepatch one, which deserves a chuckle and not simply contempt. It has some panache, as it reminds me of the Dos Equis commercials, the “Red” speech, and Batman. It is so absurd that it actually is funny.
But that’s not what they went with for the campaign. Instead, you get the smiling, glowing eyes, and rather bizarre image they are plastering on their website is confusing and weak.
Which again is on-brand, but in a bad way.
This is typical Biden stuff. Stupid, appealing to nobody who isn’t already going to vote for him, and weak. It doesn’t communicate much of anything, since literally nobody thinks that Biden is sharp and powerful. He is, at best, “better than Trump.”
That is a low bar for Democrats. A coma patient is better than Trump in their eyes.
