The Fast Bratification of Kamala D. Harris
Gen Z & queer folk taking the wheel.
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Team Harris was READY. But in fairness, Gen Z laid it out for them.
Moments after the Biden news was out and hours before it widely spread:
It was either most brilliant PR coordination of the year, or Charli XCX is a witch.
The Biden X/Twitter profile was updated swiftly. And well:
The youth were translating for the olds about what all the lime green and coconuts mean. Luckily we were here talking brat WEEKS ago.
Media outlets have been cranking out “What is Brat?” pieces all today.
Sunday night on Fire Island:
This, Democrats, is main character energy and a brand that is starting to get it. This is some early oughts Obama swagger, but with a Tiktok update.
It’s been too long.
No one wants to jump on a bad-feels brand. Optics are everything. That’s nothing new, but it’s never been faster and more evident. The record-breaking fund raising was the proof.
The youth have taught me in the past 24 hours: Kamala has good meme energy. She dances. She cackles. She did not fall from a coconut tree. It’s not quite Black Joy, as it is very business slacks.
It’s maybe Blue Joy?
Feeling: the Forgotten Brand Equity
Say what you will about the Trumpers, they have a damn good time. Populists party.
As Jessica Tarlov of Fox News said, “People love the way Donald Trump makes them feel.” And she’s not wrong.
The GOP stamped the World Wrestling Federation as a campaign and presidential template. Villains! Heroes! Losers! Insults! Outrage!
One of their most famed slogans comes from Nascar. Loud! Violent! Gas Guzzling! Both pursuits are loaded with rage release by proxy and macho Boomer energy, regardless of the fan base’s demos.
But it’s exciting. It’s loud. They are having a good #$@ing time.
Enter:
Luckily, the coconut meme was working its Tiktok magic while the Gen Xers, Boomers, Pelosi and Jill Biden have been on NYT and working the phones. Very West Wing.
During the GOP Convention, death seemed inevitable. GOP was partying like and with Kid Rock.
Dems was the emotional equivalent of sipping Ensure in the craft room before gluing macaroni art.
Or perhaps crying into ice cream alone in front of MSNBC, right J.D.?
With record numbers of Millennials and Z opting out of having children - at least for now - these are some of the meme-able quotes that are going to get interesting.
Trad wife is getting traction, but plant mom is reality.
As I mentioned back in February, Gen Z the most gender-split political generation ever. A meme-swell will not be enough deliver a generation, provided it even continues.
But there’s one other element:
America Worships Youth
Vance’s ties to raging misogynist Peter Thiel + his past statements on total abortion bans, ending no-fault divorce and telling women to stay with abusers are unlikely to endear him to women. Even some of the white women who voted for Trump in 2016 may now fear more for their daughters.
And the more they attack her, the more we may feel like we are being attacked. Some of those women may recognize the misogyny even more.1
And older women are influenced by their daughters, their co-workers, the younger women they see on the street and parasocially. Everyone in this country wants to be young, cool and in-the-know, and women have been conditioned to act accordingly.
Gen Z young men may be increasingly Far Right, but older women don’t aspire to be 24 year old men.
If the rest of Gen Z/queer America stays with Kamala, the move toward youth and away from white men re-asserting Patriarchy could work on a purely unconscious marketing level.
Add to that the Black vote. They weren’t all in on Biden but are more likely to pick young Auntie than Trump.
The key will be staying out of the way and letting GenZ do its thing, guided by young staffers. Keep the old strategists at arms’s length.
For once, could ageism help women?!
The next 100 days are going to be WILD.
I predict sales of wine, THC bevs and edibles may hit pre-pandemic levels.
💫 ASTROLOGY IS REAL, ask Starheal.
Forget Steve Kornacki.
Vindication for the longtime female passion for astrology showed up in Starheal, a Florida “astro babe” who predicted the Biden/Harris situation with incredible timing and accuracy - some of it long ago. It’s taken her viral.
August 2020
July 11
Before this weekend:
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So why haven’t we been following Starheal?! In anti-Girlboss fashion, she’s noted that she’s a relative unknown because her competition blackballed her early on, blocking her en masse to get her content censored and buried by the algorithms.
Very Scorpio of you, astro-community. 🦂
Behind Every Good Man is a Woman
The era of Patriarchy Gone Wild in the presidential race has finally notched down a bit. Already the “I just don’t like her” comments are popping up. It struck me that, really, few of us know her.
Most presidents - going back to Coolidge - average more than 20+ per year.
Biden did 10.6, Regan 5.8 and Nixon 7.
It’s a safe assumption he, like Reagan (age, decline) wanted to stay out of the direct spotlight and for similar reasons. Nixon had other very good reasons.
However, it likely also made Kamala Harris stay background as well. She couldn’t show up him, nor raise questions of Where’s Biden????! So she, too, became rather invisible.
Because: An older white man was unwilling to step aside, he secured his own position and weakened hers.
It’s a familiar tale of a woman quietly doing cleanup and not getting the advancement or credit. And as a woman of color, no less.
This is bipartisan, it happens in corporations, institutions, non-profits and small businesses, from church committees to family dynamics.
Nothing new - but worth noting.
US Weekly Rebrands & Expands
US Weekly is rolling out a rebrand, including a bit of an upscale.
It will go truly weekly, to 52 issues, expand by 12 pages and have high-profile journalists like Jo Piazza, Amy Odell and famed astrologer Susan Miller (it is an astro moment.) They are also going have heavy influencer coverage.
Says new editor Dan Wakefield: "We want smart, busy and curious women. I want to bring in folks who at the moment feel a bit guilty about consuming this information."
They’ve built an entire video production studio to create social content. Interesting gamble.
Will this be another analog boomerang trend, like young folk deleting dating apps?
Imagine the headline: Influencers, they’re just like us. Always on their phones.
Anxiety Nightmare? Sexual Harrassment Trigger? Or Green Laundry Ad?
“One strip is all it takes.”
Spotted this fairly repulsive and retrograde ad from earth-friendly Tru Earth detergent sheets. I guess they could claim Free the Nipple advocacy?
Is there a woman who would find the notion of being naked in the middle of a laundromat appealing? Creepy is the minimum.
Unsurprisingly, the company is helmed by three guys with “beautiful” and “ever-supportive” wives.
They also have a booster quote from Dave Asprey, one of the “longevity gurus” I’ve discussed previously.
Pass… though I noticed Tide is rolling out an eco-friendly flat pod in cardboard very shortly after testing it in Denver.
Protect the Dogs at all Costs
Overzealous dog moms who have tapped out on dog outfits, dog costumes and dog baby carriers may soon have a new anthropomorphic idea entering the chat: psychedelics for dogs. Just say no to trips for dogs.
📈 This Weeks’ Marketing Takeaways:
Be bold: Fitting in is no longer the move.
Feelings first. No one is reading all your messaging.
Monitoring is good, action is better. The cycle is fast. If you are too timid or unstaffed to respond, it’s gone.
Use evil for the force of good. People are ageist, people are hedonistic, escapist, shallow, jealous, etc. While you do not want your brand to be any of those things, understanding the impulses and how greater forces can influence culture and where you step in is worthwhile. Example: How Gen Z memes make older women take notice and follow.
Fun fact: DJT walked out onstage at the GOP convention to James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” - not a joke.
♥️🥥♥️
WILD!