Dark Brandon: The U.S. presidential campaign's 'meme warfare'

If you are a daily user of social media, chances are, memes are a part of your everyday online interactions. With the rising popularity of memes comes a brand new 'meme culture' which is slowly integrating itself with political campaigns, as candidates are often resorting to memes as an efficient way to gain a notable online presence. With the U.S. presidential election scheduled for November 5 this year, let's look at how one meme in particular has been used as a campaign tool thus far: Dark Brandon.

The rise of 'Dark Brandon'

The meme template known as 'Dark Brandon', depicting a red-laser-eyed alter ego of current U.S. President Joe Biden, has recently been embraced by Biden's campaign team. But, where did it come from? The original meme can be traced back to the Chinese illustrator Yang Quan, who created an image featuring Joe Biden with glowing eyes in response to the events surrounding the 2020 election. The 'Brandon' part comes from a slogan aimed to criticise Biden, being a well-used line by many Republic Party representatives.

However, the meme didn't capture widespread attention until 2022. During this time, Dark Brandon began to gain momentum, emerging as a response to the existing 'Dark MAGA' meme that portrayed former President Trump as a commanding and influential figure. However, with the meme now resurfacing in social media once again, it has now evolved to become the centre of Joe Biden's political campaign; thus bridging the internet with real-world campaigns. 

How was this meme used?

The Dark Brandon meme has found favor not only within the White House but also among prominent Democratic figures. Andrew Bates, the deputy press secretary at the White House, is a vocal supporter of this meme, even posting on X that "Dark Brandon is crushing it" during the meme's 2022 resurfacing.

An edited photo of Biden in the 'Dark Brandon' style is currently set as a profile picture on Biden-Harris HQ, a project of Biden-Harris 2024, on platforms like Facebook, X and TikTok. Notably, Biden's campaign posted a 'Dark Brandon' meme after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl on February 12. The caption of the photo said: "Just like we drew it up". However, this meme was posted around the same time when Israel raided Rafah, a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip. Many voters, particularly young ones who are critical of Biden's ongoing support for Israel, were not shy about expressing their dissatisfaction over the timing of this meme. 

Memes as a campaign tool

As mentioned before, this isn't the first time U.S. Presidents relied on memes for social reach and internet attention. Just like Dark Brandon, similar memes regarding former U.S. President Donald Trump have also made the headlines in the form of 'Dark MAGA' memes. These introduce Trump as a supreme leader, vowing that he will take revenge on his enemies; thus reclaiming his position as the President of the United States of America. 

While these memes suggested a rather violent side of Trump, Dark Brandon memes are, instead, capitalised by the Democrats to effectively rebrand Biden. The popularity of these memes has reached the point where Biden's campaign team has officially started selling Dark Brandon merchandise, including t-shirts and mugs, which has thus far played a big part in raising funds for the ongoing campaign. New weekly 'Dark Brandon' items are made available in Biden's online store under a new initiative called 'Malarkey Monday', further doubling down on the power of memes for widespread reach. Like the MAGA Trump memes, Dark Brandon memes also suggest negative indications for Biden's image, yet, that very image is turned around and used as an effective campaign tool.

Similar to the world of politics, capitalising on memes has also influenced the financial realms. Trump-themed meme coins have caused significant volatility in the crypto market as Mechanism Capital, a cryptocurrency investment firm, has begun investing in them.

Whether you may want to admit it or not, in this modern age of technology when social media is at its peak usage, memes define trends. We now live in a world where the U.S. presidential campaign revolves around marketing and branding internet memes - so it is hard to deny the impact of these silly, cartoonish pieces of text and imagery anymore. With all that said, will these memes ultimately decide the outcome of the upcoming election? Only time will tell.