Inside the leaked DNC plans for their virtual convention
Democrats’ convention this year will be shorter, cheaper, and reimagined. Also in this week’s issue:
The Trump campaign is advertising a TikTok ban
Notes on campaign design: Is this Kanye’s 2020 typeface?
A documentary about Pepe is coming out
Yours,
Inside the leaked DNC plans for their virtual convention
Credit: via Daily Beast
Details about the 2020 Democratic National Convention have been hard to come by, but leaked internal documents obtained by the Daily Beast suggest an overhauled convention with oversized Zoom-style backgrounds, speakers beaming in from “message-based” locations across the country, and a roll call vote that will include fireworks, “people in their cars honking and flashing lights,” and a surprise musical act (who wants to bet it’s Taylor? 👀).
The convention is expected to have a budget of $20 million, which is far less than the $86 million spent on the 2016 convention. It’s also expected to be much shorter. Programming is scheduled for two or three hours a night as opposed to the six-hour days of past conventions.
The convention is expected to be more focused on the nominee than in past years, with five biographical videos about former Vice President Biden and pre-taped, unscripted videos of Biden speaking with voters. Don’t expect too much focus on President Trump. The leaked document says that “viewers are unlikely to tune in night after night to hear Trump bashing” under the new virtual format, per the Daily Beast.
The Trump campaign is advertising a TikTok ban
Credit: Facebook Ad Library
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said last week the administration is looking into possible national security risks posed by TikTok, the video app owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance. Meadows said action taken on the app could happen in “weeks, not months.”
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is already running digital ads asking supporters whether TikTok should be banned.
Since Friday, the campaign has run 200 different versions of ads about TikTok on Facebook and Instagram, including one that featured a break dancer dancing to a royalty-free wannabe Chainsmokers song as the text “TikTok is spying on you!” flashes on the screen.
Users who click on the ads are taken to a one-question Trump campaign survey page that asks if the app should be banned and for the users’ contact information. FYI the Trump campaign app is also spying on you (check the June 23 issue of the Yello newsletter on the permissions requested from their app). If you want more information about TiKToK privacy risks, the Washington Post put together a good guide.
Notes on campaign design: Is this Kanye’s 2020 typeface?
Credit: @kanyewest/Twitter
First off, just a note on Kanye West’s campaign. The whole affair is marked by mixed signals, question marks, and serious concerns about his well being. He has a new album coming out Friday, so some people online are convinced West’s whole run is a publicity stunt, but here’s what we know:
West said on July 4 that he would run after many state ballot deadlines had already passed and without initially filing anything that would officially make him a candidate. He later said he no longer supports Trump and he hired political professionals to get on the ballot in multiples states. A representative for West paid $35,000 to get on the ballot in Oklahoma, he filed to run in Illinois just minutes before the deadline there, and he tweeted that he was gathering signatures to appear on the ballot in South Carolina, but failed to submit any before they were due. He held a rally in South Carolina on Sunday and reportedly upset his wife.
But here’s the political design news: West tweeted on Saturday that he’s “Hand designing a 2020 future font FTR FNT.” In addition to images of the letters he wrote out and a since-revised tracklist for his album written in the style, West tweeted White House icons with the words “The West Wing” and “Vision.”
West tweeted out a message from someone named Benno Russell, who said he did all the letters but still needed the numerals and special characters written out to complete the typeface. There’s a Benno Russell who was the former art director at the now-defunct American Apparel. Russell did not respond to a DM sent to his Instagram account.
The Yeezy Tstar typeface
FTR FNT wouldn’t be the first custom typeface for West, who tweeted in 2010, “Sometimes I get emotional over fonts” (same). The typeface Yeezy Tstar has been used in West family brands like Adidas Yeezy and KKW Beauty.
Subscribe to Yello for the latest news on the culture, branding, and visual rhetoric of politics, delivered each week:
“Living statues” protest pandemic-era Trump
Credit: Ben Ellenberg via Washingtonian
Actors covered in gold posed to create “living statues” of Trump on Friday morning in Washington, D.C. The performance art project, called the Trump Statue Initiative, was made up of three statues, including “The Poser” (above).
Two statues were placed in Freedom Plaza in between the White House and Trump’s Washington hotel, and the group received permits to do so, according to Washingtonian. A third statue, titled “The Bunker” was put up guerilla-style in front of Trump’s hotel.
Credit: Trump Statue Initiative
Filmmaker Bryan Buckley of the Trump Statue Initiative told Washingtonian that the performance art was done to memorialize Trump’s “legacy in a way our president can truly relate: realistic heroic statues” and said they might make an appearance in swing states and at the RNC in Jacksonville, Fla., next month.
A documentary about Pepe is coming out
Pepe, the cartoon frog meme that was hijacked by white supremacists and turned into a hate symbol during the 2016 campaign, has his own documentary. “Feels Good Man” debuted at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and is now getting a digital release on September 4. The film will be available on platforms including iTunes, Amazon, and Vimeo.
The doc follows Pepe creator Matt Furie as he loses control of his character and fights back to reclaim Pepe as a symbol for love (“I’m doing everything I can in my power to shut these a**holes up,” he says in the trailer).
Furie says he “didn’t even know what a meme was” when Pepe first took off online and he described himself as a “spectator to how things can evolve on the internet. It’s a window to this dark place.” I’m so excited for this. Justice for Pepe. 🐸
Washington’s NFL team rebrand is happening fast
The Washington NFL team formerly known as the Redskins announced it would rename last week following pushback from FedEx. The company threatened to end its stadium naming rights agreement prematurely unless the name was changed and the team is now rushing to rebrand.
Overhauling a pro team’s visual identity can take a while. It took more than four years after the Rams announced they would relocate from St. Louis to Los Angeles to unveil a new logo and colors, for example. Washington’s team, though, reportedly has about two months at most.
The team is hoping for a new name by the start of their regular season on September 13, according to the Washington Post. One person familiar with the rebrand told the Post the team would actually like to have the new name by the start of training camp next week!
One issue the team has is trademarking its new name. Speculative trademark squatters have long filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for possible new Washington team names. One man, Martin McCaulay of Alexandria, Va., has filed 44 trademark applications for mascots including the Red Wolves, Red Tails, Monuments, and Freedom Fighters. But it’s unlikely these attempts will stop the team.
“In the trademark world, you can’t squat on a trademark,” attorney Josh Gerben told the Post. “In other words, you can file a trademark application but that application cannot become a registration unless you have a legitimate business going on.”
These are the most popular new emoji of the year
Credit: @EmojiAwards/Twitter
Friday was World Emoji Day, and Emojipedia released a list of the five most popular emoji added in the past year. Shoutout to the white heart, yawning face, brown heart, otter, and pinch emoji.