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Operation Coconut Tree: Can Kamala Harris turn memes into votes?

Insights from The Atlantic, Garbage Day, and The Washington Post

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Updated Jul 24, 2024, 4:25pm EDT
North America
US Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two at Indianapolis International Airport in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 24, 2024.
Jon Cherry/Reuters
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The News

Kamala Harris is riding a wave of energy driven by old and new fans on social media. But online fame is fickle, and the Democratic hopeful faces the difficult task of capitalizing on the momentum while avoiding the cardinal sin of posting: Becoming cringe.

In the days after President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate, a deluge of pro-Harris memes hit TikTok, X, and beyond. Tweets nestled three layers of internet irony deep, campy photo edits, and fancams — fan-made video compilations once reserved for pop culture icons — including the vice president’s most famous head-scratcher: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”

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Initially, it was unclear whether the online frenzy was sincere. But as polls began to show Harris gaining ground on Republican nominee Donald Trump, the “coconut-pilled” members of the growing “KHive” doubled down. When Biden stepped aside as the Democratic nominee and threw his support behind his VP, “Operation Coconut Tree” got even rowdier.

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Swell of online support shows Dems’ newfound enthusiasm

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Sources:  
The Atlantic, Garbage Day, The New York Times

Whether memes can win elections will remain up for debate, but as The Atlantic’s Lora Kelley pointed out, the so-called coconutposting shows the raw enthusiasm the new, younger candidate inspires. “After months of controlling Biden’s public appearances, the Democrats now have a candidate they can proudly draw attention toward,” she wrote. Tech reporter Ryan Broderick put it more bluntly in his Substack, Garbage Day: “Yes, part of this is absolutely because Harris is not a 81-year-old white guy.” The online progressive left never embraced Biden in the way the online right embraced Trump, but the grassroots KHive movement appears to have changed the tone for the Democrats.

Harris needs to tread carefully to keep the meme cycle on her side

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Sources:  
Jules Terpak, Business Insider

Harris had faced criticism for years over what seemed like a forced, awkward public persona. But she struck cultural gold when pop diva of the summer Charli XCX casually tossed her an endorsement on X. “Kamala IS brat,” she posted, referencing the title of her recently released album. Team Harris jumped on the moment, quickly changing its Twitter header to the neon green associated with the record and leaning into the meme online. But as tech culture commentator Jules Terpak warned, movements like this only work if they feel organic. Once an institution “tries to capture the moment… it begins to feel corny.” She advised Team Harris to “play it cool and stay focused…Leave the outright unseriousness to everyone else.” As Business Insider’s tech and culture reporter Katie Notopoulos wrote, “leaning in much harder might backfire.”

Take Operation Coconut Tree with a grain of salt — but don’t underestimate it

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Sources:  
The Atlantic, Vox

Judging a candidate based on how much mileage their memes accrue online is not an exact science. Social media traction can curdle quickly, The Atlantic noted, while “the ‘extremely online’ population doesn’t necessarily represent the demographics or worldview of the rest of the country,” a technology-focused fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said. But there is power in memeability, Vox’s Rebecca Jennings wrote, a truth Trump has long embraced and Democrats now appear to acknowledge. “What this all amounts to is a viral marketing stunt that any presidential candidate would pay millions for, but one that no strategist or ad agency could create,” Jennings wrote. It’s difficult to predict what might happen next, but as Jennings noted — at least for now — “Democrats have actually found ... fun?”

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