Meet the Group Behind That “Weird” Brat-Summer Billboard Near Mar-a-Lago

After a thorough investigation, New Times has pinned down who is behind the slime-green digital billboard in popstar Charli XCX’s “brat” aesthetic a few miles away from Mar-a-Lago. The billboard references Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ label for her opponent, Donald Trump, and his running mate, J.D. Vance: “weird.”

Here is a quick catch-up if you are not well-versed in “brat” girl summer: As Charli XCX’s latest album took the world by storm, Harris’ campaign team adopted the brat summer trend, using the vibe from Charli’s signature green album cover all over social media. The Harris campaign kicked the messaging into high gear after Charli announced on social media, “kamala IS brat.”

So naturally, when the mysterious “weird” billboard popped up near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, the internet, namely Reddit sleuths, wanted to know who the creative forces behind it were.

New Times has learned that an undisclosed ad agency partnered with FLIC Votes (Florida Immigrant Coalition) to put up the digital billboard. Political activist Thomas Kennedy, who is well-versed in political trolling, put together the partnership.

“This anonymous ad agency hit me up and they were like, ‘We want to contribute something for this election in the form of billboards, messaging,’ and they have heard of me from the troll stuff I have done in the past. So, they were like, ‘Could we partner with you, and do you have an entity that would be willing to put their name on a creative to help us put it out there?'”

Kennedy says that as the former political director of FLIC Votes, he knew the organization would be a perfect partnering entity. In addition to the “weird” billboard, the group has placed three billboards in swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia with the image of a $5,000 check from 2011 that Trump had written to Harris’ campaign to help her re-election bid for California Attorney General.

Kennedy says the agency came to them with the weird, brat-summer design.

“The ‘weird’ thing was really smart riffing off pop culture,” Kennedy tells New Times. “Charli XCX has sort of endorsed the opposition to Trump. It honors the artist’s intentions, and that one specifically doesn’t even say anything about Kamala Harris. It’s more just playing off pop culture and letting people know that, yeah, these people are indeed weird.”

The group decided on the billboard near Mar-a-Lago because, as Kennedy says, the club has had “ridiculous politics” for almost a decade. The location off Tenth Avenue and I-95 in Lake Worth Beach is a popular spot for political signage, a roughly 12-minute drive from Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach resort that serves as his part-time home.

Mad Dog, a political action committee that has placed anti-Trump billboards all across the U.S. and South Florida, had its own design calling Trump a “weirdo” at the same digital billboard location.

Hence our twenty plus billboards in battleground states. Latest is up on i95/near Mar a Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Chip in to help us keep them up https://t.co/tLqBQPT6ep https://t.co/ByRrrrsvH7 pic.twitter.com/oM11Jq4Asg

— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) August 6, 2024