Out of Scope Issue #170: Welcome to Kamalot

Jul 29, 2024

Happy Monday! As August approaches, we’re finally seeing the dust settle around the Harris campaign’s meme-fueled rise. But first…

📡ON OUR RADAR

Many younger boomers face financial uncertainty in retirement—many thanks to lasting effects of the 2007-09 recession, a lack of guaranteed pensions, and an increased gap between working and growing wealth. They’re left wondering how long they need to work for and just how far Social Security can go.
Last week, CrowdStrike followed an epic global disruption with an overture of $10 Uber Eats gift cards that left many with even more questions. While the cybersecurity firm has also taken internal steps like developing a “remediation and guidance hub,” the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee has called on CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to testify on what’s being considered the largest IT outage in history. It remains to be seen what accountability looks like, but it’s clearly not $10 gift cards.
Sports gambling is more prevalent than ever, and it’s changing the way many fans watch—and how some players play—the game. Money is making fans more loyal to their wagers than their hometown teams. In parallel, scandals of athletes illegally betting on their own sports are starting to surface with lifetime bans in the mix as punishments.

💡ON OUR MINDS: Welcome to Kamalot

The first week of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has been marked by record-breaking fundraising numbers and a surge of excitement that’s being compared to President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Harris’ campaign immediately cashed in on a crucial Charli XCX endorsement. The Vice President has already built goodwill with Gen-Z with the launch of Kamala HQ, its social media response page already filled with Brat and Chappell Roan-soundtracked edits.
From simply-worded, scathing emails calling President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance “weird” to a galvanizing campaign video set to Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” Vice President Harris’ campaign team is using every communications tactic to show how different her candidacy is from President Biden’s.
And it’s working. Vice President Harris has coconut-pilled heavy-hitters in the Democratic Party and celebrities with social cache (a group New York Magazine has monikered the “Kamalot”), receiving an outpouring of support.
While we can’t predict election results, we can certainly say that comms that lean into the moment and cement the tone of the speaker while appealing to a wide audience can be effective enough to mobilize millions of people—and maybe even unburden us by what has been.

🥊QUICK HITS:

In case you missed these reads:

We’re seeing a reprise of lacrosse imagery in pop culture and advertising, perhaps as a nod to the early 2000s pre-recession aesthetic. Time to dust off the Sperry’s.
Cybersecurity firm Wiz turned down a $23 billion acquisition bid from Google capped off with a fierce note from the CEO.
Condé Nast has accused AI search engine Perplexity of plagiarism.

Thanks for reading,

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OUT OF SCOPE