Hillary Clinton’s shade parade
Illustration: Zina Saunders for Yahoo News.
About an hour into the Republican presidential debate last week, the Hillary Clinton campaign fired off a two-part text to its subscriber list. The first, a fragment: “When the GOP is still against marriage equality even though it’s the law of the land …” The second, a punch line in the form of the animated GIF displaying Clinton in a yellow pantsuit, set against a pixelated rainbow backdrop, blissfully bobbing her head back and forth, as if to say “La, la, la, I can’t hear yooou.”
It was one of many disdainful messages sent out by Clinton’s camp that night, each of which adhered to a general rule. Rather than live-debate alongside the GOP like Bernie Sanders did or dive into the policies she has already outlined, the Democratic frontrunner went for something a little more indirect: shade.
Shade, for the uninitiated, is a subtle dismissal that implies one hasn’t the time nor energy to acknowledge a foe. It takes many forms. The New York Times Magazine has described it as “a hard, deep look that could be either aggressive or searching” or “a compliment that could be interpreted as the opposite of one.” Jezebel, which holds a weekly “Shade Court” for gossip, says true shade includes a “slow burn” and “can make the receiver question the validity of their entire existence on this Earth while tapping into all their personal doubts.”
Because there are so many indirect ways to communicate on the Web, the Internet is a bona fide shade factory — displaying oblique mockery in everything from backhanded Twitter faves to well-timed Instagram posts. It’s a form of communication that naturally resonates with a younger digital-savvy generation.
There’s no question that the circuitous diss is having its moment. Online searches for “throwing shade” are exploding, and the term is becoming a mainstay in the headlines of the Web’s gossip blogs.
In an election catering to a generation that relates better to GIFs than talking points, digital strategy teams are now required to understand the nuanced Internet vernacular of their younger constituents. According to Laura Olin, who ran social media strategy for President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, a new media landscape, littered with instant-play video and emoji, introduces new challenges to candidates. As someone who sent out the record-breaking “Four more years” tweet for Obama the night of the 2012 election, she says the tone and timing of messaging, as well as its platform and audience, are key.
“It’s harder to phone this stuff in than it was in 2012, which makes it more fun but also more work,” Olin, who briefly consulted for the launch of Clinton’s campaign, told Yahoo News.
Clinton has proved to be a willing and enthusiastic practitioner of the art of shade. As the spotlight shines on the brimming Republican field, Clinton’s team has directed its strategy of condescending eye-rolling at the raucous sometimes circuslike GOP campaign. Jenna Lowenstein, a deputy digital director a Hillary for America and the self-proclaimed “director of GIFs for @HillaryClinton,” says the intent is to preemptively shut down any notion that Clinton is even taking the Republican platform seriously.
“In terms of the tone, I think the contrast is so strong right now that we want to make sure people know this isn’t small differences of opinion,” she told Yahoo News.
Since the birth of the “Texts from Hillary” meme — which imagined conversations with Clinton and famous people like Meryl Streep or Mark Zuckerberg — the former secretary of state has wholeheartedly embraced her Internet caricature as a curt, sunglasses-clad government official with places to fly and world leaders to text. Lately, however, her hair-flipping has gone on the offensive, most notably during the past two Republican debates.
(Via Texts from Hillary).
In the August debate, just as the candidates were introducing themselves onstage, Clinton sent out an email to her subscription list with the subject line “I’m not watching tonight’s debate.” A half hour later, as nearly 24 million people watched the GOP candidates squabble, Kim Kardashian sent out a pouty selfie to her millions of Twitter and Instagram followers with the caption “Excited to be meeting our next President tonight!! Maybe she’ll take a selfie with me!” Clinton, it turns out, was “not watching tonight’s debate” with one of the most famous, social-media-savvy celebrities in the world. Fancy that.
Kardashian’s post inevitably reached all those eyeballs glued to Twitter for the debate and reverberated into blog posts without Clinton’s team saying a peep — all while the men onstage were still explaining why they were right for the job. A few hours later, Kardashian followed up with another photo, this time she and her equally famous husband, Kanye West, flanking Clinton on both sides. “I got my selfie!!” Kardashian wrote. But, Clinton — in showing she had much better things to do than watch the Republican debate — got so much more.
(Via Instagram).
During last week’s debate, Clinton got even sneakier with her insults, blasting out on platforms like Snapchat and SMS, where people often have personal, one-on-one conversations. Right before the beginning of the debate, her Snapchat followers got a 27-slide story that went through an alphabetical list of the “most out-of-touch” things GOP candidates had said about women. Next came five mocking text GIFs. Clinton capped off the night by appearing on the “Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,” displaying considerable charm in a skit in which Fallon impersonated Donald Trump. “I haven’t seen you since my last wedding,” Fallon said beneath a thinning toupee. “Well, I’m sure I’ll see you at the next one,” she quipped.
To be sure, Clinton faces considerable political challenges that can’t be overcome by throwing shade. Her poll numbers have fallen, she’s still dogged by an email controversy, and she continues to battle a public perception that she lacks authenticity. But if there’s one place where Clinton’s true personality has shone through, it’s in her deft ability to shut down her Republican competition in something as simple and swift as a shoulder shrug or a selfie.
