Here Are the Memes Mike Bloomberg is Paying Instagram Accounts For, Ranked From Worst to Worst
You may have noticed that seemingly every meme page you follow on Instagram posted a variation of a message exchange with a certain former New York mayor on Wednesday night.
That’s because Mike Bloomberg isn’t only paying influencers to push his campaign for the White House, his campaign is also seeking to harness the power of memes to reach youths online.
“The Bloomberg campaign is working with Meme 2020, a new company formed by some of the people behind extremely influential accounts,” the New York Times reported.
Meme 2020 will be lead by Mick Purzycki, who is the chief executive of Jerry Media, a media firm that is best known for it’s “Fuck Jerry” Instagram page, perhaps best known for taking online content and presenting it to a staggering audience of 14.9 million followers.
“In January, Mr. Purzycki tapped a number of large influencers who he had formed relationships with through his association with Jerry Media,” according to the New York Times.
On Wednesday, the influential Instagram page, Fuck Jerry, posted a Bloomberg ad to their account, which featured an edited direct message from his campaign account billing the former New York City mayor as the “cool candidate.”
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He does look pretty cool (and yes this is really #sponsored by @mikebloomberg)
At least one large account — TheFatJewish — abstained from taking Mike’s money. The following sampling of Instagram posts, from accounts pushing pro-Bloomberg ads, have reached more than 15 million followers — causing Bloomberg’s Instagram following to balloon in the process:
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What do you think guys? Can we make this viral? (Sponsored by @mikebloomberg)
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How do you do, fellow kids? (And yes this is really #sponsored by @mikebloomberg)
We didn’t end up ranking these because they are all bad.
