Mitch McConnell embraces #McConnelling and a cooler image

On Thursday night, comedian Jon Stewart introduced the world to a new trend called “McConnelling.”

“McConnelling” was born when Stewart recognized undiscovered Internet genius in McConnell’s recent campaign advertisement that features the Kentucky Senator in various settings — but without words. The background audio is just upbeat, yet slightly eerie, instrumental music. McConnell doesn’t even speak in the ad.

Stewart realized the music could be replaced with almost any other music, and the result would be hilarious. On his show, he played it with “Whatta Man,” “Baby Got Back,” and “The Sound of Silence.”

The Internet took over from there. Others added Enya’s “Only Time” and Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball.”

But it didn’t end there. Others then realized the scene in which McConnell slowly looks up from his desk looks a lot like a scene from the opening credits of any ’90s sitcom. People then began splicing the video into ’90s sitcom credits, including “Full House,” “Perfect Strangers” and “Family Matters.”

The Kentucky Senator took all the mockery in stride. Becoming upset with the fad would have made him look out of touch and rigid. Ignoring it would have been a missed opportunity. Instead, his campaign tweeted this:

The link sends visitors to watch numerous McConnelling videos and encourages them to pick their favorite.

Slate‘s Dave Weigel suggests the campaign ad is “a naked ploy for virality,” and that the campaign has previously made similar ploys. He has a point. However, that isn’t necessarily bad. As technology and social habits change, so must campaigns. Smart campaigns and politicians will adapt to culture. In this case, it means producing content people want to share and use in positive or neutral ways. It is difficult to use this video against McConnell — his primary opponent tried, and it came off as stretched and awkward. However, the footage is easily used in good fun. That increases McConnell’s name recognition as well as perception of him as a “fun guy.”

McConnell’s 2014 campaign has long embraced social sharing and unique approaches. In March 2013, his campaign team made a “Harlem Shake” video wherein one of the dancers placed a giant cut-out of McConnell’s head over his own. Last year, the campaign turned around what could have been a bad situation through Twitter. It tweeted a photo of McConnell smiling and standing next to his campaign manager, Jesse Benton, holding his nose. A leaked audio recording revealed that Benton had said he was only “holding his nose” while working for McConnell to benefit Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in 2016.

More recently, at CPAC, McConnell presented retiring Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) with a rifle as a sign of both respect and conservatism, as well as for the shock factor.

McConnell may not have the youthful same star power as his fellow Kentucky Senator, nor Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), but that gives him an advantage. The McConnelling videos are so funny because it’s fun to add hip music to a video of a quiet, mild-mannered Senator. It wouldn’t have the same irony if it was done with a trendier leader. The same goes for when he brought the rifle out on CPAC’s stage.

McConnell and his campaign clearly have a good grasp on how to leverage social media for the campaign’s benefit. Other campaigns would do well to watch and follow suit in ways applicable to them. Campaigns which strategically use Internet culture to their advantage will reap benefits. Ones which don’t will fall behind.

Mediaite’s Matt Wilstein listed some of the best McConnelling videos. However, some of the best are from Youtube user “McConnellOn90sSitcom.”

McConnell’s primary opponent, Matt Bevin, even joined the McConnelling with a somewhat bizarre version of McConnell’s campaign video. Rather than add music or splice the video with a sitcom, he added subtitles.

**A previous version of this post misidentified two of the songs used in McConnelling. This has been corrected.