The Man Enough campaign set out to address a gap in the political and cultural conversation: masculinity. At a time when the right was aggressively courting young men with narrow, often toxic notions of what it means to “be a man,” progressives had largely left the issue unspoken. Our goal was to flip the script — to spark a national conversation about masculinity that reframed strength as supporting women, being confident in vulnerability, and rejecting fear-based control.
We aimed to create a piece of content that would feel authentic, masculine without being macho, and direct without being preachy. The creative approach was deceptively simple: men looking straight into the camera, speaking plainly about what makes them “man enough.” By escalating from traditional displays of toughness to declarations of respect for women, the script created a humorous but powerful dissonance — highlighting how absurd it is to fear women in the first place.
While the campaign was in support of Harris/Walz, our primary objective was cultural: to start a mainstream conversation about masculinity and offer young men a healthier alternative narrative. We set measurable goals of breaking through the political media bubble, sparking bipartisan attention, and reaching audiences who might not otherwise engage with campaign messaging — ultimately using TikTok and social platforms not just to drive views, but to redefine what manhood can look like today.
Our strategy was to create a piece of content designed to thrive in TikTok’s ecosystem: short, direct, authentic, and easily remixable. We leaned into satire and sincerity simultaneously — with gym rats bragging about braiding their daughters’ hair and ranchers declaring they weren’t afraid of women. These memeable, screenshot-ready moments were intentional hooks for virality, designed to encourage duets, remixes, and conversation.
Visually, we rooted the campaign in traditionally “rugged” Americana settings — ranches, gyms, motorcycles — spaces often culturally coded as conservative. By reclaiming those backdrops for a progressive message, we challenged assumptions and made the video visually striking while feeling undeniably “real.”
Tone was central to our execution. The delivery was so straightforward and self-serious that it often tipped into parody. This deliberate ambiguity made viewers ask: Is this a joke or not? That uncertainty became one of the campaign’s greatest strengths. It fueled debate, encouraged people to share it with commentary, and ensured that conversations about masculinity continued well beyond the video itself.
The execution relied on an extraordinary team of middle-class volunteer professionals: cinematographers, actors, casting directors, producers, editors, and more — many of whom were available due to the decreasing work opportunities in Hollywood. Despite a budget of only a few hundred dollars, the production values rivaled a national ad buy. This polish, combined with the parody-like tone, created productive confusion — many viewers and even reporters questioned whether the ad was an official multi-million-dollar campaign spot. That mystery supercharged sharing, as people debated its origin and intent.
Challenges included stretching limited resources, moving quickly to stay relevant in the news cycle, and striking the right tonal balance. Early drafts risked sounding scolding or condescending. We refined the script to trust the audience’s intelligence — letting them infer the critique of toxic masculinity rather than spelling it out. This adjustment made the video more inviting and shareable across political and cultural lines.
By tapping into TikTok culture — participatory, ironic, and meme-driven — while grounding the message in sincerity, we transformed a low-budget shoot into a viral engine. The strategy worked because it spoke in the language of the platform, empowered audiences to make the message their own, and offered something fresh in the political landscape: a progressive, confident masculinity that wasn’t afraid to laugh at itself. Even though it was posted on a personal account with (at the time) only a hundred or so followers, the use of hashtags combined with the quality and tone of the video, TikTok’s algorithmic propensity to promote content with high ratios of comments and duets, and more helped the video quickly go viral.
The Man Enough campaign exceeded every expectation. Within the first few days, it was viewed over 70 million times across our original TikTok posts, reposts, and other platforms. After dozens of rips and re-posts we lost count of total views but estimate it more than doubled that 70 million. Leading political figures on both the left and right amplified it, ensuring the message broke free of partisan bubbles. The video was covered by New York Post, VoteSaveAmerica, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and discussed on The Rachel Maddow Show and Real Time with Bill Maher.
Importantly, the campaign didn’t just rack up views — it started a conversation. The satirical-but-sincere tone invited debate over masculinity itself: what it means to be strong, what it means to support women, and why fear and control are signs of weakness. Many who thought they were trolling the video only helped accelerate its spread, expanding reach to audiences well beyond typical campaign content.
The ambiguity around whether the ad was “real” became part of the story, drawing in skeptics and fueling virality. Some reporting even speculated the video had cost millions, when in fact it was produced on a few hundred dollars and the volunteer labor of passionate working-class entertainment professionals.
By our measure of success — sparking a mainstream cultural conversation around masculinity, reaching millions of young men, and reframing progressive values as confidently masculine — the campaign was a resounding win. It demonstrated how TikTok-native viral content can achieve impact traditionally reserved for big-budget advertising, proving creativity and cultural insight matter more than money when shifting narratives. Above all, it reinforced that a seasoned team of content creators and entertainment industry professionals can achieve maximum quality, virality, and impact with minimal resources, time, and budget
