As most of the world knows by now, Joe Biden dropped out of the Presidential race, and within 24 hours Kamala Harris has jumped in to take his place as the assumed nominee.
The politics of it all we’ll leave to others. What caught our attention was this little story in Teen Vogue about how ordinary people immediately started to produce their own DIY merch to support her cause (t-shirts, posters, badges, bumper stickers, you get the idea).
It wasn’t the standard, generic products on her homepage that people have started to rally behind, but the homemade, DIY stuff on Etsy sporting quotes and memes that reveal her more quirky, human side. Eg. “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” One of these things is not like the other.
The interesting question is whether the Harris campaign will try to “borrow” the DIY products and ethos, somehow, and make it their own.
Would there be backlash? Could they do it without removing all the magic?
Hard to predict beforehand, but given all the momentum so far, the answer is unlikely.
Like most memes, they weren’t started by Kamala herself, someone shined a spotlight on a random moment, and that made all of the difference.
Seth Godin once famously said, “The ideas that spread, win” and this DIY effort is spreading very fast indeed. But we’ll go one further. To us, the ideas that win are the ones that become “Social Objects.”
Social Objects are what they sound like: things that enable social interaction. Things that allow us to identify:
- “You like Kamala? I like Kamala!”
- “You’re a vegan? I’m a vegan!”
- “You’re a Star Wars fan? I’m a Star Wars fan!”
Trump’s MAGA hat was a great social object. So was Obama’s famous “HOPE” poster. Once you recognize the social object idea, you can’t unsee it. They’re everywhere.
They’re what our civilization is built on. They’re also what our businesses are built on.
Kamala’s campaign is suddenly spreading effectively because people are creating social objects very effectively, not the other way around. The objects precede the spread.
Want your idea to spread? Then ask yourself, is it a social object? Because that’s how it’s done. Just ask Kamala.
