TikTok Dedicated Team of 5 Gen Z Members
Posting Without Objections... Minimizing Approval Procedures
In the upcoming U.S. presidential election this November, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, has seen her 'meme' gain significant popularity among MZ generation voters. The driving force behind the Harris meme craze is reportedly a team of five 'TikTok team' members within her campaign.
On the 13th (local time), the Washington Post (WP) reported that Harris's online campaign team consists of 250 members, but the TikTok team is operated by only five Z-generation employees under the age of 25. They have even earned the nickname "the wild group of 25-year-olds," serving as a vital source of energy for the campaign. Notably, some of them reportedly have this as their first job. WP described this TikTok team as having "breathed new life into Harris's campaign with one of the most original strategies in modern politics by leveraging the unique rhythm of social networking services (SNS) over the past eight weeks."
They produce most video posts in just 30 minutes. Harris's TikTok team adopts a playful approach and sometimes uses cynical or quirky content to generate word-of-mouth. In contrast, during the 2016 presidential election, the Hillary Clinton campaign had 12 staff members managing a single X (formerly Twitter) account, requiring up to 10 drafts for each post. Also, while former President Donald Trump's campaign invested effort in SNS-driven campaigns, they tended to deliver heavy messages about economic crises and America's precarious future in a dark manner, unlike Harris's team.
A 6-second TikTok video posted immediately after the first TV debate of the presidential candidates on the night of the 10th. The situation description "Trump in the debate" is written at the top, and the woman in the video says, "I thought he was ready to come back. I thought he was stronger than this, but clearly he was not. I want to go home." It is a meme mocking Trump’s supporters who are frustrated because Trump did not perform well in the debate. [Image source=TikTok]
One of their recent meme videos was a 6-second TikTok posted right after the first TV debate among presidential candidates on the night of the 10th. The video featured a middle-aged woman mocking the debate performance of Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump. This video attracted attention with over 7 million views.
The TikTok team also took Harris's comment during the debate, where she said Trump’s "boring rallies cause supporters to leave early," and posted a smiling photo of Harris in a kitchen with the caption, "Oh my, she cooked (beat) him."
Rachel Catton, an SNS consultant who manages the online culture newsletter 'Linked in Bio,' said, "They run the account really like a fan account," and added, "It doesn't feel like a campaign." In fact, this promotional method is observed to be highly effective. Online data measurement firm Zelf reported that Harris's TikTok posts have over 100 million more views than Trump's.
Parker Butler (24), the content lead of the TikTok team, emphasized, "Our campaign empowers young people to speak to young people," adding, "When a moment that catches attention happens, our team rushes to post videos on social media, sometimes working past midnight in shifts. Campaigning is no longer just about reacting but about making the news."
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