A top Democratic advisor has suggested that presidential candidate Joe Biden could use Fortnite to get more people into politics. There have been several creative 2020 presidential campaign efforts, like Bernie Sanders' Twitch page.
Speaking to Politico, Lis Smith, the former senior advisor for communications for Pete Buttigieg revealed some potential ideas for the Democratic National Convention, due to take place in August. Smith spoke about Stefan Smith, the content creation manager for Buttigieg, who Smith cited as saying that "Travis Scott’s take over of Fortnite and how that was a really creative way to think about it." The Travis Scott concert in the game set a new player record for Fortnite and has prompted many in communications to talk about new, surprising ways to promote things.
Smith suggested that Biden's image could be projected against the Grand Canyon. The former senior advisor then said that "we could have exclusive musical content from some of the biggest musical artists in the game at this driving eyeballs to the convention so that people watch them." The idea isn't to put Biden inside Fortnite but that's where Smith got the idea from.
It's unclear which celebrities would be on board for this, but Fortnite streamer Ninja has spoken out against comments by President Trump and rapper and Fortnite player Lil Yachty has voiced his support for Bernie Sanders. These stars, if they are voting Democrat in the election, could be part of a big Biden event that gets gamer support.
Smith's comments have been criticized and mocked by some. Many have also compared it to a 2016 speech when then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told voters to Pokemon GO to the polls. The criticism seems to be that these methods of trying to get in front of gamers seem inauthentic.
However, that isn't to say that politicians can't find success in video games or using video game ideas. While she may not have been doing it explicitly to campaign, many seemed to enjoy US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez foray into Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Gamers have also found champions in legislators fighting to ban or restrict the sale of video game loot boxes. This suggests that the communities of Capitol Hill and Fortnite aren't mutually exclusive.
It's unclear though if anything will come of this. There have been many Fortnite crossovers, from the Travis Scott performance to the Harley Quinn event. These all came with some sort of skin or new piece of content, but it's difficult to see how Joe Biden and his policies could hand out freebies in a game or at the Grand Canyon.
Image source: Flickr Gage Skidmore Creative Commons license