What is Kamala Harris's 'brat' rebrand all about?
- Published
Kamala Harris has overhauled her campaign's online presence by embracing a social media trend inspired by pop star Charli XCX's Brat album cover.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has scattered references to the album across her campaign's account, renaming her profile Kamala HQ.
Her rebrand comes as Charli showed her support by tweeting "kamala IS brat" shortly after President Joe Biden announced he was stepping out of the race for the White House and endorsed his vice-president.
By Monday morning, Ms Harris had seized on Charli's backing - with the account sporting a new lime green photo in the style of the Brat album cover.
Brat is the name of Charli's sixth studio album and her tweet about Vice-President Harris received almost nine million views in just four hours.
The album's artwork is a lime green square with the word brat written in the middle in a low resolution Arial font.
Charli told the BBC's Sidetracked podcast that brat is a concept that represents a person who might have "a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra".
It has been deemed by some pop critics as a rejection of the "clean girl" aesthetic popularised on TikTok, which spurned a groomed ideal of femininity, and instead embraces more hedonistic and rebellious attitudes.
“You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things some times,” Charli explained on social media.
“Who feels like herself but maybe also has a breakdown. But kind of like parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”
Charli XCX says Kamala Harris is 'brat'
The #bratsummer trend has nearly one million posts on TikTok and the lime green theme has been used by thousands of individuals and businesses.
In recent weeks - as pressure to drop out of the race grew on President Biden following several public errors - supporters of Ms Harris have been producing videos that combine clips of her speaking with songs from Charli's album.
One of the most recent viral videos shows Ms Harris telling a story about her mother during a White House event in 2023.
She said: "My mother used to - she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'
"You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."
Supporters of the vice-president are now posting memes of coconut trees.
Kamala HQ's X account has also started to repost memes (which often feature a recognisable image or video clip, paired with a witty caption or phrase) and swear words.
In other words, Ms Harris is very much appealing to younger voters who now, thanks in part to Charli XCX, see her as the "cool girl" option.
On Sunday, just hours after Joe Biden announced that he was stepping down from the 2024 presidential race and would be endorsing Harris, the campaign officially filed to alter its name.
Reflecting the change, the Biden-Harris campaign page on X implemented its new branding.
It was previously called Biden-Harris HQ and had leant heavily into internet memes about President Joe Biden.
New documents filed with the Federal Election Commission stated that the campaign would be known as 'Harris for President' and that Ms Harris would be conducting business as a presidential, not vice-presidential, candidate.
