Biden’s campaign is multiplatform. Of course he’s going to join TikTok.
Plus: RFK Jr. is trying to run on his family name. His family won’t let him.
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
Biden’s campaign is multiplatform. Of course he’s going to join TikTok.
RFK Jr. is trying to run on his family name. His family won’t let him.
This digital ad campaign targeted visitors at hundreds of Planned Parenthood locations
Scroll to the end to see: which candidate believes your love alone will propel their campaign to the White House. 💕
Biden’s campaign is multiplatform. Of course he’s going to join TikTok.
President Joe Biden’s campaign has joined TikTok in a bid to reach young voters where they are—despite the app being banned on U.S. government devices.
@BidenHQ posted its first TikTok video on Super Bowl Sunday, a light-hearted Q&A of Biden answering this-or-that questions, which now has more than 8.8 million views. The account has since uploaded other posts, like a compilation video of former President Donald Trump saying he got rid of Roe v. Wade (in one, saying “killing” it), and Biden making a joke about his own age.
It’s the latest example of Biden’s campaign going multiplatform, and a clear picture of how he’s going to design his campaign to compete against his opposition. Last October, the Biden campaign joined Trump’s Truth Social site, but perhaps unsurprisingly, so far TikTok appears to be more fertile ground for garnering supporters. Since the campaign launched its TikTok account, it has gained more than 119,000 followers. That’s enough to be considered a “macro-influencer.”
The decision to join the app, which is owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, drew criticism from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who wrote on X, “Why is Biden on TikTok? Easy. Because he’s desperate. What message does it send? He doesn’t give a rip about Americans’ security or China’s spying.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was “a little worried about a mixed message.” John Kirby, who Biden just named White House national security communications adviser, said at a White House briefing Monday that he’d refer all questions about the campaign’s use of TikTok to the campaign, but that the government’s stance toward the app hadn’t changed.
“All I can tell you is it’s banned on U.S. government devices, and we follow that guidance,” Kirby said at the briefing. “I don’t want to get into too much of the national security, technical reasons behind that, but it does have to do with concerns about the preservation of data and the potential misuse of that data and privacy information by foreign actors. I think that’s as far as I can go.”
Biden won voters ages 18 to 29 by a margin of 24% in 2020, according to Pew Research Center, but an NBC News poll found his support lagging four years later on TikTok. According to the poll, respondents ages 18 to 34 who use TikTok at least once a day narrowly back Trump over Biden 44% to 42%.
Biden skipped the traditional pregame network interview this year, and his campaign didn’t advertise during the game. Instead, his TikTok account and social media posts constituted the entirety of his campaign’s Super Bowl content strategy. It was a bid to control the message, sure. But it’s also quite a bit cheaper (see the price tag below).
RFK Jr. is trying to run on his family name. His family won’t let him.
If independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., hopes to lay claim to his family’s political legacy for his long-shot presidential run, the reaction of one of his relatives to a Super Bowl ad aired on his campaign’s behalf shows that could be easier said than done.
American Values 2024, a super PAC, recycled the footage and soundtrack from a 1960 campaign ad for Kennedy’s uncle John F. Kennedy for their $7 million, 30-second spot. Set to a jingle that repeats “Kennedy” 14 times in 30 seconds, cartoon-style images of political signs are shown labeled with state names, campaign slogans, and Kennedy’s name and likeness.
In the version shown during the Super Bowl, images of RFK Jr. replaced JFK, and new slogans were added like “Vote Independent.” RFK Jr., who originally opened his campaign as a Democrat, announced in October he would run instead as an independent and rebranded his campaign website for the new affiliation. They did, however, miss something. At the 22 second mark, the original JFK ad shows a sign that reads “Vote Democratic…Kennedy for President” that wasn’t edited out for the new version.
It’s an ad about Kennedy Jr.’s greatest asset—his last name—but some of those who share his Kennedy family legacy argue that he doesn’t represent it.

Bobby Shriver, the son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, posted on social media that the Super Bowl ad supporting his cousin used his mother’s face, and that she would have found RFK Jr.’s views appalling.
“She would be appalled by his deadly health care views. Respect for science, vaccines, & health care equity were in her DNA,” Shriver wrote. “She strongly supported my health care work at One Campaign and (RED) which he opposes.”
RFK Jr. apologized to Shriver on X, responding to his comment writing, “Bobby. I’m so sorry if that advertisement caused you pain. The ad was created and aired by the American Values Superpac [sic] without any involvement or approvals from my campaign.”
Kennedy Jr. noted federal rules prohibit super PACs from consulting with the campaigns they support and added, “I send you and your family my sincerest apologies. God bless you.” And yet, the super PAC’s ad is pinned to the top of Kennedy Jr.’s profile.
Shriver’s not the only Kennedy family member to indicate he doesn’t support RFK’s Jr.’s run. His brother Chris Kennedy told CNN last year, “due to a wide range of Bobby’s positions, I’m supporting President Biden,” and others have said they’re backing President Joe Biden this year too. JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg accused RFK Jr., of “trading in on Camelot, celebrity conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame” and said Biden “shares my grandfather’s vision for America.”
This digital ad campaign targeted visitors at hundreds of Planned Parenthood locations

Talk about targeted advertising.
People who visited hundreds of Planned Parenthood locations in every state except Alaska and Hawaii were targeted by ads from an anti-abortion group that used cell phone location data, said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). He’s now asking the government to take action.
In a letter Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission, Wyden said his office began investigating Near Intelligence, an India-based company that acquired an American location data broker in 2021, after the Wall Street Journal reported last year that their data was used to run ads as early as November 2019 to late 2022.
One ad reviewed by the Journal included the copy, “Took the first pill at the clinic? It may not be too late to save your pregnancy,” and by clicking on it, viewers were taken to a landing page with the options “I want to undo the abortion pill” or “I am thinking about the abortion pill.” Anti-abortion ads were shown to people across social media, on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
The ads were placed by Recrue Media for Veritas Society, a nonprofit run by the anti-abortion group Wisconsin Right to Life. In a conversation with Recrue Media co-founder Steven Bogue, Bogue told Wyden’s staff they drew “a line around the building and parking lot of each targeted facility,” or geofencing.
“The scale of this invasive surveillance-enabled ad campaign remains unknown, however, Mr. Bogue told my staff that the company used Near to target ads to people who had visited 600 Planned Parenthood locations in the lower 48 states,” Wyden wrote. On a since-removed web page for Veritas Society, the group claimed it served 14.3 million ads in Wisconsin in 2020 alone.
Wyden said he believes Near may have violated federal securities laws, and judging by a settlement the FTC reached last month, the agency seems poised to act. The FTC’s first-ever settlement related to the collection and sale of sensitive location data was with X-Mode Social, a Virginia-based data broker, following allegations it sold data location that could be used to track visits to medical facilities, houses of worship, and domestic abuse shelters. The company and its successor Outlogic are banned from sharing or selling sensitive location data, which is the first ban of its kind, per the FTC.
Concerns about the availability of sensitive location data to marketers extends beyond abortion. Last November, a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Wyden and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) co-sponsored the Government Surveillance Reform Act. The bill would require warrants for the government to purchase private data from data brokers, and the ACLU applauded it.
Have you seen this?
How Bob Marley built a posthumous merchandising empire. You can buy Bob Marley backpacks and Bob Marley jigsaw puzzles. What does that mean for the artist’s legacy? [Fast Company]
TikTok is full of made-up slang and trendbait. TikTok has seen a bizarre (and annoying) explosion of language as creators rush to coin terms. [Vox]
How Trump is celebrating Valentine’s Day with his supporters. With this fundraising copy. 😍🥰

$10 million worth of Elton John’s stuff is headed to auction. A wide variety of objects—from clothes to art and cars—are on view at Christie's New York through February 21. [Artnet News]
History of political design
“Ike” elephant brooch (1950s). I don’t think merchandisers could get away with selling political themed items marked “Made in India” in the U.S. today. Great brooch, though. Beautiful brooch.

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Portions of this newsletter were previously published in Fast Company.