Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are taking their 2020 campaign to new horizons — Animal Crossing: New Horizons, to be specific.
On Tuesday, the Verge first reported that starting Sept. 1, official Biden-Harris lawn signs will be available for ACNH players to download and display around their islands.
The campaign created four designs that Animal Crossing fans can download to show their support for the 2020 Democratic candidates. There’s an official Biden-Harris logo, a Team Joe logo, a Pride-inspired Joe logo, and an American-themed aviators print. Images shared by the campaign also feature Biden and Harris characters in the game, and it’s worth noting that Biden is holding a balloon above. (Finally, some balloon action in this election cycle.)
Image: biden for president
Image: biden for president
To access the designs, ACNH players will have to use the QR scanner in the Nintendo Switch Online app. Once you sign in and click on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, hit the “Designs” NookLink app and select “Scan a QR code using your camera.”
After following those steps, you’ll be able to scan the codes below and access the designs in the game.
Image: Biden for president
Image: biden for president
Image: biden for president
Image: biden for president
Once the designs are uploaded to your game, you can also use them to create other merch and display one as your island’s official flag, like so.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has essentially been *the* game of quarantine, so it makes sense why the Biden-Harris campaign would use it to try to reach its millions of players and attempt to appeal to younger voters.
“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, the Biden campaign’s director of digital partnerships, said in a statement provided to Mashable.
“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,” Tom said. “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.”
The yard signs are also featured in Biden’s online campaign store, and there’s more ACNH merch to come.
This isn’t the first time presidential candidates have tried to stay hip by incorporating video games into their campaigns. Remember when Hillary Clinton told everyone to “Pokémon Go to the polls?”
It’s risky move to try to appeal to younger generations using their own interests, and it definitely has a cringe factor, but we’ll see how Biden and Harris’ latest play works.
Stay tuned to see if Donald Trump and Mike Pence try to campaign via video game, or if Biden and Harris go for Fortnite next.
UPDATE: Sept. 1, 2020, 3:16 p.m. EDT Updated to include statements and additional images from Biden for President.