As an aspiring presidential candidate in 2022, former Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard turned to TikTok to create a political buzz with younger voters. He tried every trick in the TikTok book: dance challenges, memes, self-deprecating edits — but nothing gave him the viral boost he was looking for.
Finally someone on Ebrard’s team suggested posting a video in which he outed himself as a BTS fan, according to Rafael Morales, a political consultant in Mexico City who worked on Ebrard’s digital strategy. The video drew over one million views and hundreds of comments. Some commenters even promised to vote for Ebrard if he managed to bring a BTS concert to Mexico. Ebrard followed up with a video where he promised to bring the K-pop group to the country if he won the presidency.
“We got to BTS on TikTok by chance and we found a goldmine,” Morales told Rest of World.
Morales is part of a new generation of digital consultants in Mexico who help public figures become relevant online by harnessing the power of large online fandoms. With the presidential election just months away, candidates across the nation are scrambling to find ways to distinguish themselves. Consultants like Morales are eager to help them by tapping into the enthusiasm of fans online.
“As a fanbase, BTS Army Mexico doesn’t want to comment on political issues.”
“There’s been a generational change in political campaign managers or consultants,” Mercedes Baltazar Lobato, founder of Mexico City-based communications consultancy Meraki, told Rest of World. “If addressed properly by politicians, Gen-Z fandoms can generate empathy and connection.”
It’s not a foolproof strategy. In some cases, official fan groups have specifically distanced themselves from the effort. “The fact that the BTS Army mobilizes large masses of people nationally and internationally is very well known,” Alejandra Chávez, vice president of a BTS Mexico fan group registered with the country’s Korean Cultural Center, told Rest of World. “[But] as a fanbase, BTS Army Mexico doesn’t want to comment on political issues.”
With their global reach, fandoms have played an uncertain and often contradictory role in national politics. In India, political parties are already seeking influencers to sway voters in the 2024 general elections. K-pop fans have proven particularly powerful online: In 2019, they single-handedly reversed an X (formerly Twitter) policy on deactivating accounts, preserving a deceased star’s account as a memorial.
Cristian Edgardo Guerrero Flores, who goes by Cristian Magazo on social media, is a Mexican TikToker who posts about legal inquiries. In mid-2022, the social communications team of Mexico’s Supreme Court hired him as a digital communications consultant. Within a few months, the country’s chief justice, Arturo Zaldívar, went on TikTok to announce that he was a Swiftie, or a fan of the U.S. singer and songwriter Taylor Swift. The video garnered over a million views. Soon, Zaldívar’s TikTok account was filled with Swiftie content: He congratulated her on her birthday, shared his Swift-heavy Spotify playlist, and exchanged friendship bracelets with the singer during the Mexico City leg of her Eras Tour.
The new approach was a hit: Zaldívar soon came to be known as Ministro Swiftie — Swiftie Minister — in Mexican media. “Honestly, I didn’t know who he was before he started posting about Taylor Swift,” Diana Hernández, a 33-year-old Swiftie in Mexico City, told Rest of World.
“I really like him. He’s sweet; he seemed really happy when he got tickets to [Swift’s] concert,” Gabriela Lara, a 15-year-old Swiftie from Veracruz, told Rest of World.
Other Swifties said Zaldívar is faking it for the votes. Adrián González, a 36-year-old fan from Saltillo, told Rest of World that “there are more organic ways to say you’re a Swiftie, but I thought his posts are a very calculating strategy to appeal to a lot of people, given what is happening politically.”
Having already stepped down from the position of chief justice to associate justice in late 2022, Zaldívar left the court altogether this November to support the 2024 presidential campaign of Claudia Sheinbaum, the current front-runner from the country’s ruling left-leaning party. Sheinbaum has been struggling with her online presence, analysts told Rest of World. “[Zaldívar] left his job to support Claudia’s campaign, a candidate who hasn’t been successful on TikTok because she’s dry and [her online attitude] has little credibility,” Baltazar Lobato said.
