Is Donald Trump unstoppable? Not if his opponent wears the right shoes, apparently.
After cruising to his third consecutive 2016 GOP primary victory by netting 43 percent of the Republican vote in the Nevada caucuses, there’s a growing realization that the real estate heir and reality TV star is likely to become the Republican presidential nominee.
While Trump has run a bit of advertising, his strategy largely eschews traditional campaign ads. Instead, Trump uses his mastery of social media to keep himself in the headlines as often as possible. On Twitter, something Trump-related trends almost every single day. But there’s now something that people tweet about more than Trump.
According to an analysis conducted by the social media analytics firm Spredfast, there’s one thing that people are tweeting about far more than Trump: memes.
Spredfast found that, over the past week, one meme in particular received more than twice as many mentions as Trump: ‘Damn, Daniel.’
Damn, Daniel comes from a 30-second video of a high school kid named Josh repeatedly complimenting/teasing his friend Daniel about his fly sartorial choices—especially his white Vans.
https://twitter.com/Josholzz/status/699432086965366784
The video is kind of funny the first time you watch it. By spin number five, it’s damn hilarious.
Since last Wednesday, Trump has been the subject of just over 1.3 million tweets, according to Spredfast. ‘Damn, Daniel,’ by contrast, has been the subject of nearly 3 million. The following chart illustrates the Twitter mentions of Trump (in blue) against those of ‘Damn, Daniel’ (in yellow).
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Lots of brands have jumped into the #DamnDaniel trend, none more so than Vans. Spredfast reports the shoe company has seen its Twitter mentions spike by 818 percent since the meme burst into our cultural consciousness.
DAAAAAMN DANIEL 😂😂 @josholzz @daniel_laraa
— Vans (@Vans) February 18, 2016
The biggest difference between Trump and ‘Damn, Daniel’ is the relentless positivity that envelops the meme. Trump, on on the other hand, is famous for his constant stream of social media insults. The New York Times has counted at least 199 people, places, and things Trump as insulted on Twitter since beginning his campaign last year.
It just goes to show, people may get all up in arms about politics, but what they really care about it memes.
Photo via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY SA 2.0)