Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg's billion-dollar ad spend has already upended the 2020 race to challenge Donald Trump, but yesterday's bizarre and coordinated campaign of meme-style content, published by influencers, has certainly gotten him more attention. Taylor Lorenz:
Mick Purzycki is the lead strategist of the Meme 2020 project. He is also the chief executive of Jerry Media, a media and marketing company that is a powerful force in the influencer economy. The company’s portfolio includes some of the most notable meme accounts on Instagram. Jerry Media was at the center of controversy last year after a debate around proper crediting in meme culture.
Lorenz refers here to Fuck Jerry, the Instagram swipe account whose operators are now coordinating Bloomberg's cringey memes. The memes are screengrabs of made-up private message chats with Bloomberg, portraying him as a tech-savvy, funny billionnaire. Bloomberg is one of those things.
Here's Bloomberg spokesperson Sabrina Singh:
“Mike Bloomberg 2020 has teamed up with social creators to collaborate with the campaign, including the meme world. While a meme strategy may be new to presidential politics, we’re betting it will be an effective component to reach people where they are and compete with President Trump’s powerful digital operation.”
Dollars to donuts Bloomberg doesn't have the first clue about what's being done in his name here, and would not be able to answer questions about it meaningfully should they be asked.
I noticed at least one journo doing this on their insta. This is potentially career-limiting behavior. He's paying a lot.
