Fortnite's Travis Scott Event Inspires Odd Joe Biden Campaign Suggestion

In case you weren't already aware, the recent Travis Scott Astronomical event in Fortnite was a resounding success, and at least one political consultant appears to believe that it just might serve as a handy blueprint for the Joe Biden presidential campaign. Hands up if you ever thought all of those words would ever be included in the same sentence. This comes from a recent interview with strategist Lis Smith, a former campaign advisor for Pete Buttigieg, where she basically suggests that the Biden campaign could maybe use some kind of giant projection in the style of the Fortnite event to really shake up the Democrats' national convention later this year.

If you're looking for some way for this to all make sense, the short version is that the staggering success of the Travis Scott event in Fortnite has made some folks take notice in a year where more and more of what might have traditionally been physical, in-person activities instead take place online or in some way digitally thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And Astronomical drew in over 12 million concurrent players to Fortnite, developer Epic Games revealed at the end of April, setting the new all-time record for the video game.

"Stefan Smith, who did digital work for Pete Buttigieg, cited the other day, you know, how Travis Scott's takeover of Fortnite and how that was a really creative way to think about that," Lis Smith says about 14 minutes into the interview when asked about what she might do if she were in charge of the upcoming convention. "That if we could do that with Joe Biden -- you know, Joe Biden projected against the Grand Canyon. You know, that might be a little bit ambitious, but we could have exclusive musical content from some of the biggest musical artists in the game at these, driving eyeballs to these conventions so that people watch them."

As you might expect, the response to this suggestion has been... mixed, to say the least.