How being ‘brat’ is helping Kamala Harris win over Gen Z in ‘Project Coconut’
Kamala Harris is embracing “brat summer”, coconut trees and Venn diagrams – and Gen Z are loving it.
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US Vice President Kamala Harris is on a mission to prove she is down with Gen Z – embracing viral trends and memes sweeping the internet.
The official @BidenHQ campaign social media accounts were rebranded as @KamalaHQ when Joe Biden, 81, dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Ms Harris, 59, on Sunday, local time.
On X, formerly Twitter, the account’s cover photo now emulates the Brat artwork from Charli XCX’s new album.
The British singer is behind a worldwide trend referred to as “Brat summer”, an aesthetic and lifestyle associated with having fun, embracing individuality, being a little messy and just being yourself.
Gen Z has been editing clips of Ms Harris dancing and laughing to Charli’s song 360.
“Kamala IS brat,” Charli wrote on X.
For those who don’t quite understand the “brat” trend, that is a compliment.
Even unofficial Kamala x Brat merchandise has appeared.
One video with over 1.5 million views on TikTok shows a group of men in lime green cropped tops with “Kamala” written across the chest.
Another on-trend star Ms Harris’ campaign has embraced is Chappell Roan.
The American singer skyrocketed to fame this year after big performances at Coachella and the Governors Ball Music Festival in New York.
Her song Femininomenon was quickly associated with Ms Harris’ bid for president, as she is currently the first woman to serve as US vice president and could become America’s first female president if elected.
Ms Harris’ campaign jumped on the trend, making their own TikTok to the song with pictures of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, 78, and Ms Harris.
The captions reflect the lyrics, which say: “But what we really need is a … femininomenon. A what? A femininomenon.”
Within seven hours the post was viewed 6 million times, with more than 1.4 million likes.
“YES MADAME COCONUT,” read one comment with more than 50,000 likes.
This brings us to Ms Harris’ campaign being dubbed “Project Coconut”.
The campaign is embracing moments she has previously been mocked and trolled over, and the younger generation is loving it.
The origins of the coconut meme can be traced back to a speech Ms Harris gave in May last year.
She was speaking about the importance of helping young people by understanding the communities they live in “because none of us just live in a silo”.
“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” she said reflecting on something her mother used to say and laughing. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
While it can’t exactly be explained why (like many things that go viral) video clips and audio of the moment have taken off.
In a nod to the viral quote, all the Kamala HQ social media accounts have a simple bio: “Providing context.”
The Harris for President campaign donation page reads: “This page exists in the context of all that came before it.”
Another example of Ms Harris’ campaign embracing moments criticised by Republicans as “cringe”, is recognising her quirky love for Venn diagrams, which the Vice President has expressed multiple times at various public speaking events.
To announce the rebrand of the Biden HQ Instagram and X accounts to Kamala HQ, a Venn diagram was posted with the names of both accounts on either side and “holding Trump accountable” in the middle.
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) July 22, 2024
Ms Harris’ campaign broke fundraising records, racking in $81 million in its first 24 hours.
The eye-watering figure is the largest amount of money raised in a 24-hour span in presidential history, according to Harris’ campaign, who noted a “groundswell” of support behind the Vice President.
It comes as 888,000 grassroots donors made contributions in the past 24 hours, 60 per cent of whom made their first contribution during the 2024 election race.
Originally published as How being ‘brat’ is helping Kamala Harris win over Gen Z in ‘Project Coconut’
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