Donald Trump has long been obsessed with crowd sizes. In the opening days of his presidency, he sent out White House press secretary Sean Spicer to lie about the crowds at his inauguration being larger than previous ones.
Now, leading into Tuesday night’s presidential debate in Philadelphia, the Kamala Harris campaign has launched an advertising campaign featuring Philadelphia iconography, including poking fun at Trump’s crowd sizes.
Signs appeared Tuesday morning, ahead of the debate, featuring the slogan “Crowd Size Matters,” along with a complete Philly soft pretzel over Harris’ name and a fraction of one such pretzel above Trump’s. At least two of the signs are on what appears to be Market Street in Center City, just blocks away from the debate site at the National Constitution Center, where media covering the debate will likely see them.
Spotted on the streets of Philly one day before the debate 👀
Check it out: https://t.co/66Qqtc2JgG pic.twitter.com/SKgpjgItdo
— Official Team Kamala (@TeamKamala) September 10, 2024
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The ads feature the URL kamalaharris.com/wit, which directs to a website pointing out that Harris and Tim Walz, at their first rally together in August, filled the Liacouras Center at Temple University, with lines around the block outside. In contrast, a Trump rally in the same location weeks earlier had failed to fill that arena.
“Harris and Trump both held rallies in the same venue,” the website says. “Harris’ event was packed to the rafters. Trump’s? A disappointing performance.”
The site says, “Philly is Wit Kamala. ” In Philadelphia parlance, “Wit” is part of a Philly cheesesteak order, meaning the person ordering wants their sandwich with onions. The intricacies of cheesesteak orders have tripped up many politicians over the years on their visits to Philly, most recently J.D. Vance.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the signs are part of a big Harris-Walz push in Philadelphia on debate day. It includes “Philly-themed advertisements throughout the city on Tuesday, including on billboards, food trucks, taxis, and with digital projections.” Another ad compares Wawa, the beloved locally-based convenience store and gas station chain, with “waaa waaa,” next to a picture of a whiny Trump; this could draw pushback from the Wawa corporation, which has historically been more supportive of the Republican Party.
Another features a picture of Harris, next to the phrase “Philadelphia. Freedom.”
Philadelphia will continue to serve as a battleground even after the debate is over. Pennsylvania, as its been for every presidential election in memory, is a major swing state. Trump carried it in 2016, but Joseph Biden won in 2020, in part due to late-arriving ballots from the city of Philadelphia, as well as strong performance in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Last week, a series of bus station advertisements appeared around Philadelphia, featuring a picture of Harris, the Philadelphia Eagles logo, and the proclamation that Harris was “the official candidate of the Eagles.” While Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is one of the few NFL owners sympathetic to the Democrats, the signs were not genuine and were soon removed. They appeared to have been the unauthorized creation of local street artists. However, the pretzel and “Philadelphia. Freedom.” ads are officially sanctioned by the campaign.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery.
