It’s an awkward time to be Joe Biden.
The president must be firm enough to assure skeptical Democrats that he is fit to lead. He must be anodyne enough to take down the political temperature after the assassination attempt on his rival, Donald Trump. And he must be feisty enough to draw eyeballs away from the MAGA lovefest that is the Republican National Convention.
Enter Dark Brandon.
The trusty meme has become a go-to messaging vehicle for Team Biden since the campaign latched onto the grassroots internet joke almost two years ago. According to the lore, laser-eyed Dark Brandon is the president’s villainous alter ego — a lover of ice cream and a hater of malarkey.
It’s perhaps the most recognizable Biden campaign icon and is emblazoned all over merchandise, billboards and social media. As one Democratic strategist put it to NOTUS Tuesday, “Dark Brandon is basically like the PG-13 version of malarkey.”
The latest iteration of Dark Brandon memes — bankrolled by the Democratic National Committee — put highway billboards conveniently in the eyeline of the Republican National Convention, not to mention swing state Wisconsinites.
“Restore Roe? Vote for Joe!!” proclaims one billboard.
“Democracy is on the ballot, folks. Stand with Joe!!” exclaims another.
The ads rolled out after the Biden team’s brief pause on campaigning after Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump. As Biden has promised to tamp down the rhetoric on his greatest foe, the billboards boost top Democratic charges against Trump — and Republicans in general — without actually invoking the former president’s name.
Bringing Dark Brandon to Milwaukee outlines “a bold second term agenda that sharply contrasts with what Wisconsinites are seeing on the RNC stage this week — restoring Roe, lowering costs, protecting Social Security, and safeguarding our democracy,” DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman said in a statement.
By deploying Dark Brandon, the campaign also plays up a vitality and vigor from Biden, which Democrats have been craving from the president since the debate. The campaign is apparently banking on voters realizing that behind those laser eyes, Biden is a savvy mastermind capable of delivering a robust second term.
If Biden keeps up with the energy he’s displayed at recent post-debate events, Democratic digital strategist Josh Klemons told NOTUS, “then the Dark Brandon meme can certainly help.”
The Dark Brandon X account — which has nearly 120,000 followers — has been more direct in criticizing the Trump ticket and newly announced running mate JD Vance.
“Call me old fashioned, folks,” read a Monday post, “but I like having a VP who hasn’t called me “America’s Hitler.”
Some Democrats have pointed to real-life glimpses of Dark Brandon in Biden’s recent media appearances, including during Biden’s Monday interview with NBC, during which he pointedly asked anchor Lester Holt why he won’t ask Trump about his debate lies.
“Dark Brandon is out,” posted prominent Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko.
Still, there are some pitfalls that come with promulgating Dark Brandon, editor in chief of Know Your Meme Don Caldwell told NOTUS.
For one, the Dark Brandon meme has been around for two years. Its circuitous path into mainstream internet culture can be traced back to an October 2021 NASCAR race where the crowd chanted “Fuck Joe Biden,” which a reporter mistakenly heard — somehow — as “Let’s go, Brandon.” The Biden campaign later reclaimed the “Brandon” mantle in the summer of 2022 and repurposed it for presidential promos.
These days, however, the meme is most familiar to the chronically online. And even at that, Caldwell said the Google trend spikes for “Dark Brandon” are “much lower than the spikes were before.”
With the Dark Brandon strategy, the campaign also runs the risk of unduly raising expectations for Biden’s performance. Minutes before the June debate, for example, the official POTUS account posted a photo of the president drinking a can labeled “Dark Brandon’s Secret Sauce.”
“I don’t know what they’ve got in these performance enhancers, but I’m feeling pretty jacked up,” the caption read, referencing Republican conspiracies that Biden would take drugs before his showdown with Trump.
So bullish was the Biden campaign on Dark Brandon’s superpowers, that they included a link for interested parties to purchase the so-called secret sauce for $4.60 a pop. (The official website is also selling a sticker sheet for $6, a “dark pride” tote bag for $28 and a onesie for $30.)
“The secret to a good debate performance? Staying hydrated,” reads the still-available secret sauce description. “Get yourself the same performance enhancers Joe Biden took before going on stage. 100% water, 0% malarkey.”
After Biden’s debate showing, it’s unclear who, exactly, would want to ingest whatever brought on such a lethargic performance. That’s a potential problem.
“It could be a risk,” Caldwell said. “That meme is kind of drawing more attention to how much Biden isn’t exuding the Dark Brandon energy.”
But Biden’s team doesn’t appear overly concerned with raising the bar too high for the president. If anything, it seems, Dark Brandon is morphing into Biden’s full-time public persona.
“Dark Brandon,” Biden told a supporter in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, earlier this month, “is coming back.”
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Riley Rogerson is a reporter at NOTUS.