President Donald Trump might have lost the election, but he beat President-elect Joe Biden in Gallup’s annual survey of the most-admired men in America, so there’s that. Also in this week’s issue:
5 things to know about political ads in Georgia right now
Biden’s White House is going to have an Office of Digital Strategy
Hunter Biden’s getting his first solo art show
Yours,
Somehow America's most-admired people are complete opposites
Former first lady Michelle Obama by Miller Mobley for Good Housekeeping in 2018, and President Donald Trump’s White House portrait.
Former first lady Michelle Obama is the most-admired woman in America for the third straight year, and President Donald Trump is the most-admired man, according to Gallup’s annual survey released today.
The reasons why America admires both a woman who popularized “when they go low, we go high” and a man who promises to punch back 10 times harder is because: 1) Republican respondents were much more consistent about naming Donald Trump as their most-admired man while Democratic respondents named a wider variety of men, including former President Barack Obama and President-elect Joe Biden, and… 2) Michelle Obama is super popular and doesn’t have as much competition (for now). Her successor, first lady Melania Trump, is only the third first lady to never be named the No. 1 most-admired woman any year, following Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson. Also, women like Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and incoming first lady Jill Biden who will likely vie for the top spot in years to come are still relatively less well known than Obama.
Obama was named the most-admired woman by 10% of respondents. She was followed by Harris, Trump, Oprah Winfrey, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Queen Elizabeth II, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and activist Greta Thunberg.
Gallup found 16% named a female relative or friend as their most-admired woman of 2020.
President Trump was named the most-admired man by 18% of respondents, ending a record 12-year streak for Obama.
Obama was named the most-admired man every year from 2008 to 2019, including tying with Trump last year. Obama’s 12-year streak matches the record set by former President Dwight Eisenhower, although Eisenhower’s years were not all consecutive.
In this year’s list, Trump was followed by Obama, Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Pope Francis, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, NBA star LeBron James, and the Dalai Lama.
Gallup found 11% named a male relative or friend as their most-admired man of 2020.
5 things to know about political ads in Georgia right now
Jon Ossoff campaign social graphics via @jonossoff/Instagram (top), Kelly Loeffler campaign ad via Facebook Ad Library (bottom left), and Raphael Warnock campaign ad still via screenshot (bottom right).
Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoff races will decide which party controls the Senate, so there’s a lot at stake. Here’s the state of political advertising in Georgia:
The two races are the most expensive Senate races in history: Already, the races have broken the records for the most-expensive Senate races ever, at $439 million and $331 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
The candidates have released joint ads: It’s not often a state has two Senate races at once, and we’re seeing the candidates in some cases run as a team. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler (R) released a joint ad accusing their Democratic opponents of being socialists, and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff released a joint ad featuring Biden’s endorsement. Each ad ends with both candidates introducing themselves and the line “we approve this message.”
Ossoff’s visual brand is popping: Ossoff’s visual brand has really kicked it into high gear since advancing to the runoff. The look is inspired in large part by the visual trends of the Biden-Harris campaign (check Ossoff’s Instagram account and campaign shop), but it’s more youthful and internet savvy, like this truck size comparison memeand his TikTok account.
Loeffler is running misleading ads: In video and digital ads, Loeffler inaccurately accuses Warnock, a Baptist preacher, of endorsing anti-American views expressed by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., by using out-of-context video.
Warnock is campaigning with his dog: Ads featuring his dog are humorous and humanizing, and they combat against voter stereotypes faced by Black candidates. Watch the ads and read this good explainer at FiveThirtyEight. “This ad will be taught in Race Politics classes for years to come…it is doing A LOT of silent heavy lifting,” Fordham University political scientist Christina Greer said.
Election Day in Georgia is next Tuesday, January 5, 2021.
Biden’s White House is going to have an Office of Digital Strategy
The Biden transition announced a White House Office of Digital Strategy on Monday, saying the office was a “reflection of the critical role digital strategy plays in reaching the American people.”
Presidential administrations have long had public-facing communications teams — the formal role of White House press secretary, for example, goes back nearly a century, to Hoover press secretary George Akerson in 1929 — but the transition said the need for a digital team was important now especially because of the pandemic.
Harris said in a statement that “digital communities and online spaces have taken on even more importance in the wake of the pandemic.” Incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klein called digital outreach “a key pillar of the Biden-Harris Administration’s engagement with the public.”
Biden campaign graphics shared by designer Abbey Pitzer. Credit: @abbey.doodle/Instagram
A top priority for the office will be to “develop partnerships that are focused on extending the president-elect’s reach beyond his own social platforms,” the transition said.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Biden participate in things like public health campaigns with influencers or interviews with less traditional new media news start-ups. It would follow in the footsteps of the Obama administration, which said yes to interviews with YouTubers like GloZell and Bethany Mota and outlets like Vox and BuzzFeed.
Obama’s administration revolutionized modern presidential communications, but so has Trump with his tweeting habits. Expect Biden to continue to break new ground in how presidents communicate.
Every member of the 12-person Office of Digital Strategy announced Monday worked on the Biden-Harris campaign. The office will include platform manager Brendan Cohen, director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty, digital partnerships manager Maha Ghandour, video director Jonathan Hebert, director of platforms Jaime Lopez, creative director Carahna Magwood, designer Abbey Pitzer, traveling content director Oliver Raisner, deputy director of digital strategy Rebecca Rinkevich, partnerships manager Aisha Shah, deputy director of digital strategy Christian Tom, and director of digital engagement Cameron Trimble.
Hunter Biden’s getting his first solo art show
Hunter Biden posing with his work for story about his art published by the New York Times. Credit: Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times
Future first son Hunter Biden is reportedly signing a deal to be represented by Georges Bergès Gallery, a New York- and Berlin-based art gallery, according to Page Six. An announcement about the representation and Biden’s first solo show are expected next year.
Biden showed off some of his work to the New York Times for a story published in February. He uses alcohol ink blown throw metal straws to create abstract images, and he said painting “is literally keeping me sane.”
Subscribe to Yello for the latest news on visual politics delivered each week:
The National Cathedral is decked out in thousands of origami doves
This new art exhibition installed in the Washington National Cathedral is gorgeous and I’m obsessed.
Les Colombes by German artist Michael Pendry includes more than 2,000 paper origami doves displayed in the Cathedral’s nave to appear as if they’re flying.
Pendry said the doves represent peace and resilience, “which are desperately needed in the troubled times we live in, especially as we reflect back on 2020.”
Though the cathedral is now closed due to Covid, the installation is scheduled to stay up through May 2021. Les Colombes has previously been shown in other houses of worship including Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England; Mount Zion in Jerusalem; and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
