Joe Biden’s campaign has successfully repurposed a Republican meme into a cash cow for the president’s 2024 reelection effort.
“Dark Brandon”-branded merchandise accounts for 54% of the Biden store’s online revenue and 44% of total sales, Axios reported Friday, and has driven more than 75% of all traffic to the campaign website.
DONALD TRUMP INDICTED: ALL THE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE ARRAIGNMENT AT DC COURTHOUSE
Biden campaign officials tell the Washington Examiner the “Dark Brandon” products have been “so successful” that campaign merchandise manager Emma Watson launched a “Malarkey Monday campaign, where new products featuring the “Dark Brandon” design are added to the storefront every Monday.”
Currently, the store boasts eight “Dark Brandon” designs, with the “Dark T-Shirt” and “Dark Roast Mug” ranking as the top two products sold across the entire campaign. The Biden team plans to release a tank top and “prototype” color-changing mug, which, when filled with a hot substance, will change Biden’s trademark black aviators to meme-ified red laser eyes.
The “Dark Brandon” trend itself lifts heavily from conservative internet circles and possibly Chinese propaganda. Chinese artist Yang Quan is widely believed to have originated the first images of a glowing-eyed Biden on Weibo, a Chinese social media site, shortly after the 2020 general election, though that has not been independently substantiated. The “Dark Brandon” name derives from the anti-Biden “Let’s go, Brandon” slogan embraced by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Though the memes themselves originated as ironic jokes poking fun at the president’s age, Biden White House officials, including deputy press secretary Andrew Bates, began tweeting “Dark Brandon” images alongside stories touting the president’s legislative accomplishments.
Biden himself has referenced the meme multiple times.
While introducing comedian Roy Woods Jr. at the 2023 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the president said he didn’t mind being made fun of before putting on his aviators and saying he wasn’t “sure about Dark Brandon.”
And on Thursday, as Trump was arraigned in federal court for the third time this year, Biden tweeted a clip of himself drinking from a DB-branded mug and declaring, “I like my coffee dark.”
The Biden campaign, in partnership with the Democratic National Committee, raised a strong $72 million in the second quarter of this year, yet it has struggled to compete with Trump and other Republicans when it comes to small donors.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Toward that end, the Biden campaign added three new finance officials to the team Thursday, with a particular focus on grassroots financing.
“These leaders have incomparable expertise that will ensure we leave no stone unturned to raise money using innovative tactics that reach supporters where they are,” Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement Thursday morning.
