(VitalNews.org) – Over the last few months, President Joe Biden and his administration have been shifting strategy a bit regarding the president’s public image, leaning into a well-known meme about the president spawned from reactions to his September 2022 State of the Union speech aesthetic.
The eerie red background during Biden’s State of the Union address in 2022 sparked reactions from the public in combination with the president’s characterization of Republicans who support former President Donald Trump as a threat to democracy. In response to their outrage, a meme created by Biden supporters appeared online of “Dark Brandon,” which shows the president appearing sinister with glowing red eyes.
On Thursday, a video was posted on Biden’s Twitter page that embraced the joke. It shows the president seated with a cup of coffee. He then says “I love my coffee dark,” lifts the cup to take a sip, puts it down, and then the camera zooms in on the image on the mug depicting Dark Brandon with glowing eyes accompanied by the year 2024. The video was posted with the caption: “A cup of Joe never tasted better,” and a link to purchase the mug for $22.
This meme is also layered with another meme: referring to the president as Brandon, which was spawned from a viral video of a crowd chanting “F*** Joe Biden!” at a sporting event in 2021. The newscasters laughed, pretended not to hear what was audible, and said the crowd was chanting, “Let’s go, Brandon,” referring to the athlete on the field. Ever since then, the phrase became code for insulting Biden. The Dark Brandon meme counters this insult by flipping it into an empowering image of the frail president.
Biden is now having fun with the jokes about him, and it seems his campaign is trying to appeal to the younger generation more by embracing memes. This isn’t the first time he’s referenced Dark Brandon. At a White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Biden, mentioned Dark Brandon at the end of his opening remarks, producing a pair of sunglasses and putting them on.
The video advertisement comes just days after Trump was indicted for the third time, and it seems Biden’s campaign is feeling confident they can tap into humor the way the former president does.
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