On Sep 21, 2023, The White House’s official Twitter account responded to a tweet from a reporter named Liz Elkind:
A little bit of context:
- Matt Gaetz is a Republican, who serves as the representative for Florida’s 1st congressional district. He is usually considered an extremist by the Democrats.
- The current US President is a Democrat. Therefore, The White House Twitter account can be seen as the voice of the Democratic Party.
- The photo is a cropped screenshot of a satire article from ClickHole.
The Worst Person You Know is a meme used to sarcastically express an agreement with a person you don’t like. Regarding the relationship between Matt Gaetz and the Democratic Party, it was a rare moment of agreement that the White House had to heartbreakingly admit Matt was right. The general reaction to the tweet was excitement. People appreciated the sassiness and the apt use of the meme.
Government social media accounts being strange and fun is nothing new. A substantial portion of the internet is made up of humor, quirkiness, and memes. If you want your message to resonate with a wide audience, why not start with the native language of the internet? Moreover, doing so creates an element of surprise, amplifying reach and engagement. People wouldn’t expect a supposedly serious entity could be that fun and sassy.
At the same time, the tweet has several interesting details. Firstly, the White House could have simply posted the photo of the guy, similar to how many Twitter users have been doing it.
But the team knew that not everyone will get the reference. Including the headline will provide the necessary context.
Secondly, the image includes the top bar (the bar with the 🔍 icon), and the text “Lifestyle”. Probably the intention was to make clear that it is a screenshot from an online article, removing the chance of it being mistaken for other types of photos, e.g. the one in the announcement below.
Thirdly, they removed the logo of the publisher. The unedited screenshot looks like this:
Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, written by The United States Office of Government Ethics, states that “You[, as an employee of the Executive Branch,] may not use your Government position to suggest that your agency or any part of the executive branch endorses organizations (including nonprofits), products, services, or people”.
Would including the logo be considered an endorsement? I’m not sure. But I’m not 100% sure it isn’t either. Given the account having 8.7 million followers, simply mentioning the brand would likely drive a lot of traffic to its website. Additionally, a few people might assume The White House was affiliated with ClickHole; or had some kind of a “special relationship” with them, especially the White House Twitter account has no other posts that associated with any brand. The information was not relevant to the key message anyway.