Skip to main content

What Mike Bloomberg’s sponsored political memes mean for future elections

On Wednesday night, Instagram was flooded with memes. 

But these weren’t normal memes. They were political memes. Sponsored political memes. From the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate, former New York City mayor, and billionaire Michael Bloomberg. 

Recommended Videos

The memes were, well, meme-like in nature — made to resemble direct messages, where Bloomberg asked popular pages like @grapejuiceboys, @fuckjerry, and @thefunnyintrovert to help make him more relatable online, or share a “viral” image of him. All with the caption, “yes this is really #sponsored by @mikebloomberg.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8fQad9BhoT/

The flurry of satirical memes were sent out around 5 p.m. Wednesday from nearly two dozen accounts with millions of followers in total. Social media erupted, and for a moment it was all chaos and confusion, until a connection was made. 

Political advertising has officially hit meme accounts. Wow. pic.twitter.com/y1ZLeWnebg

— Greg Hempenius (@ghempi) February 13, 2020

meme accounts are posting sponcon about bloomberg??? kick me into the sun pic.twitter.com/50IMdRKoNW

— morgan sung (@morgan_sung) February 13, 2020

The New York Times reported that the Instagram eruption was part of Meme2020, an effort between the Bloomberg campaign and Jerry Media, “a media and marketing company that is a powerful force in the influencer economy.” You might also know Jerry Media from its role in the ill-fated Fyre Festival

Sabrina Singh, a spokesperson for the Bloomberg campaign, told Digital Trends in a statement that while memes are new to presidential campaigns, “we’re betting it will be an effective component to reach people where they are and compete with President Trump’s powerful digital operation.”  

Not just Bloomberg

Donald Trump’s team has spent more than $21 million on Facebook ads since May 2018. To combat Trump’s spending, Bloomberg’s team has been dropping more than $1 million a day on the social network over the past few weeks, according to NBC. He’s also come out against his fellow Democratic candidates who call for the breakup of big tech, saying “Breaking things up just to be nasty is not an answer.”

This isn’t Bloomberg’s first outreach to internet influencers either. The Daily Beast reported last week that, in another viral stint, the Bloomberg campaign was advertising on Tribe, a platform where social media influencers can connect with advertisers and team up to make branded content. For a flat $150 fee, creators would post about Bloomberg’s electability and his ability to “rise above the fray.” 

You could say Trump meme’d his way to the presidency, too. Google “Trump shares meme” and a stockpile of bizarre tweets surface. Trump’s also been known to share dystopian-esque memes, and include byte-worthy bits into speeches that send his base into frenzy.

So memes are not new. Even political memes are not new — politicians know what makes a viral moment, and often play along in order to capture as many likes, favorites, and retweets as they can. 

Take House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s sarcastic clapback during Trump’s second State of Union address. Or her ripping up his speech after his third. 

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
Oli Scarff / Getty Images

What is new, however, is viral political #sponcon, or sponsored content. 

“You have to meet voters where they are using any means at your disposal, so this is a smart strategy by the Bloomberg team,” said Eric Koch, a Democratic strategist based in New York. 

And that’s exactly what Reid Hailey, co-founder and CEO of Doing Things Media, thought when he was approached by Mick Purzycki, head of the Meme 2020 project. Reid knew the type of mockery Bloomberg’s campaign proposed would be a hit among his combined audience of more than 50 million people.

“We specialize in making people laugh, and when this campaign was brought to us, we wanted to jump on the opportunity to be included on it,” said Reid in a statement to Digital Trends. 

Reid and his team own and operate over 20 “top comedy accounts” that include @shitheadsteve, @nochaser, @middleclassfancy, @trashcanpaul, @golfersdoingthings, @gamersdoingthings, @festivalist, @doyouevenlift, @neatdad, @neatmom, and @fourtwenty. 

With this kind of pull, no wonder social media was set ablaze Wednesday night. Viral meme accounts can reach millions of users in just a matter of minutes. And other political campaigns may be taking notice. 

“I suspect you will see more of this in the future,” said Koch. “We’ve already seen how effective it is.”

Meira Gebel
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Meira Gebel is a freelance reporter based in Portland. She writes about tech, social media, and internet culture for Digital…
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Reddit just achieved something for the first time in its 20-year history
The Reddit logo.

Reddit’s on a roll. The social media platform has just turned a profit for the first time in its 20-year history, and now boasts a record 97.2 million daily active users, marking a year-over-year increase of 47%. A few times during the quarter, the figure topped 100 million, which Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders had been a “long-standing milestone” for the site.

The company, which went public in March, announced the news in its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday.

Read more
Worried about the TikTok ban? This is how it might look on your phone
TikTok splash screen on an Android phone.

The US Supreme Court has decided to uphold a law that would see TikTok banned in the country on January 19. Now, the platform has issued an official statement, confirming that it will indeed shut down unless it gets some emergency relief from the outgoing president.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company soon after the court’s verdict.
So, what does going dark mean?
So, far, there is no official statement on what exactly TikTok means by “going dark.” There is a lot of speculation out there on how exactly the app or website will look once TikTok shutters in the US.

Read more