Starting today, September 1st,
Animal Crossing: New Horizons players will be able to deck out their island homes with official Joe Biden yard signs as part of the campaign’s broader initiative to organize voters online this fall.
Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the US earlier this year, campaigns like Biden’s have been forced to entirely rethink how they organize voters. Instead of in-person rallies, Biden’s team has opted for
live-streamed events and fundraisers along with socially distanced productions and interviews. The entire Democratic National Convention was held virtually earlier this month, with most guests streaming in over video software like Zoom to deliver speeches.
The Biden-Harris campaign released four sign designs for players to download, featuring the official Biden-Harris logo, Team Joe logo, the “Joe” Pride logo, and an image of aviator sunglasses shaded in red, white, and blue. Players will be able to access the designs in-game by scanning the design QR codes through the
Nintendo Switch Online app.
In-game concerts and events have proven to be extremely popular with players throughout the pandemic. Travis Scott held his first concert in
Fortnite in April, and
over 10 million players attended it. Other popular artists
like Idles and Cherry Glazerr have played virtual festivals in games like
Minecraft.
Millions of people have picked up Animal Crossing: New Horizons since its initial release in March, and the Biden campaign is hoping to engage that large base with their new merch. “
Animal Crossing is a dynamic, diverse, and powerful platform that brings communities together from across the world. It is an exciting new opportunity for our campaign to engage and connect Biden-Harris supporters as they build and decorate their islands,” Christian Tom, director of digital partnerships for the Biden campaign, said in a statement to
The Verge. “As we enter the final campaign stretch towards November, this is one way we are finding new creative and innovative ways to meet voters where they are and bring our supporters together.”
As part of the Biden-Harris campaign’s plans to get the signs in front of voters, the team is seeding the designs with a handful of gaming influencers who will be sharing their gameplay with the merch throughout the day on Tuesday.
“This is just the start of how we plan to engage players ahead of November as we’re already looking forward to rolling out more digital swag, voter education tools, and organizing efforts on Animal Crossing and other platforms,” Tom said.
