Whether she embraces it explicitly or not, the meme-ification of Harris's campaign has significant potential to make a positive impact on her campaign.

Listen to this article 6 min Listen to this article 6 min When Kamala Harris became the prospective new Democratic party presidential candidate on 21 July, social media was quickly flooded with coconut and palm tree emojis, black writing on lime green backgrounds, the word "brat", and questions about the actress Maya Rudolph's whereabouts. But how do these memes and popular culture references relate to the US election campaign?

Following last year's "Barbiecore" theme, social media posts this year are all about neon lime green and being "brat". The trend emerged from the new album of the same name by British pop singer Charli XCX.

advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove adsMany social media users have adopted the album cover art (black Arial font on a neon lime green background) as a meme (a popular and shareable cultural idea). According to Charli XCX, the meaning of "brat" is to be "that girl who is a little messy and likes to party... Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown... is very honest, very blunt, a little bit volatile".

Harris has become associated with the meme over the past few weeks. But it was not...