An image celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win posted on Joe Biden’s official Instagram account went viral last week, an image which I believe warrants analysis. A portrait of Biden with photoshopped terminator eyes with the caption “Just like we drew it up, @Chiefs,” now surpasses over a million likes. There are a few possible motivations behind this bizarre-ity to consider.
Many have speculated that the post is a jab at his opposition, both in the upcoming election and just general opposition, who allude to a conspiracy that he orchestrated the win of the Chiefs to heighted the media attention on Taylor Swift right before she endorses him. This does not seem like a likely scenario to me. His caption sounds more like kinship towards the football team that he supports and does not strike me as out of the ordinary at all – the picture itself is what concerns me. I believe the most likely explanation behind it is a Cedar Rapids kind of situation.
If you’re not already familiar, during the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton herself posted a Vine of her in Cedar Rapids, Iowa saying “I’m just chillin, in Cedar Rapids,” in a seemingly obvious attempt to appeal to young voters at the time. It seems almost too obvious to me that Biden’s marketing team is attempting the same thing with this post. What a lot of people seemed to have missed is that this post was not a one-time thing. In fact, @BidenHarrisHQ already released this image publicly in an announcement of their account on January 8th, along with making it their profile picture on both Instagram and Threads. I think the general plan behind this post is to make that a central image of his campaign, attracting younger voters ironically or not.
Since the post went viral, there have been mixed reactions. This election will be my first time being able to vote in a national election, so never before have I been the target demographic for these types of targeted marketing campaigns. But now, as the demographic meant to receive this campaign, it honestly makes me concerned for the route social media in general is going. I’m not sure if people felt the same when Hillary Clinton posted her Cedar Rapids video, but it feels weird knowing that I’m the demographic for it. The decision our country will make in the fall is important, and shouldn’t fall on shallow campaigns like this one. I’m not necessarily saying that politics must stay completely serious, but if campaigns are getting slowly and slowly sillier, it makes me wonder how they will continue to escalate in the future.