‘Hotties for Harris’: Democrats head online to get out Gen Z vote
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00:00As Kamala Harris emerged as the clear successor to Joe Biden, an explosion of green, palm
00:05tree emojis and coconuts filled the timelines and news feeds of anyone trying to get to
00:11know the new Democratic nominee.
00:13Harris' meteoric rise to the top of the Democratic ticket has been propelled by a young social
00:18media team which has harnessed the power of the internet to spread their candidate's message.
00:24So anyone trying to make heads or tails of this election needs to speak the language
00:28of internet memes, basically short videos or photos posted online.
00:33You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?
00:36Coconut, coconut, coconut, coconut.
00:42Her supporters seized upon a once mocked clip about something her mother said to her growing
00:46up making it go viral and unleashing a tsunami of remixes and coconut emojis across the internet.
00:52You think you just fell out of a coconut?
00:55Yeah 360, when you're in the mirror do you see?
00:58The virality continued as Kamala HQ embraced Brat Green, a colour which references singer
01:04Charli XCX's summer smash album Brat, a state of mind Charli described like this.
01:10You're just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and like maybe says
01:16some like dumb things sometimes who like feels herself but then also like maybe has
01:21a breakdown but like it's brat, you're brat, that's brat.
01:26But Harris' campaign is going beyond the memes, mobilising an army of influencers and content
01:31creators in hopes of reaching the 8 million young people who have come of voting age since
01:362020.
01:37At the DNC, creators were given access to the Harris campaign and on the sidelines of
01:42the convention, a hot ticket event called Hotties for Harris, a term coined by rap superstar
01:48Megan Thee Stallion when she appeared alongside the Democratic nominee at a rally in Georgia.
01:54Hotties for Harris brought together influencers and creators to spread the message to their
01:58followers about feminist issues such as abortion access, a lightning rod issue in 2024.
02:06Younger people are not getting their news in traditional outlets anymore, they're not
02:10sitting down and turning on NBC and CBS and Fox, that's just not what they're doing.
02:15They're getting their news online from TikTok and they're getting it, you know, that's where
02:22they're consuming their information now and they want to get information, they trust information
02:27when it comes from a trusted source and they feel like these influencers are friends.
02:33When you overlay those two things, it makes sense to work with influencers to distribute
02:39news but to make sure that they're doing it in an authentic way.
02:44But Harris' campaign isn't the only one trying to unleash the power of the internet.
02:48Republican nominee Donald Trump has engaged in a series of interviews with popular online
02:53figures such as Logan Paul, Aiden Ross and Elon Musk.
02:58In an election which could be decided by just a few thousand votes across a handful of battleground
03:03states, both sides hope the youth vote could help them across the line on November 5th.