If you don’t play the Blizzard Entertainment team-shooter multiplayer game Overwatch, this Florida billboard is probably baffling. But if you do, this is a clever and incisive critique of Donald Trump’s temperament. (Maybe you don’t need another one, but it’s still nice to have.)
Here’s the billboard, which sits on the corner of North Alafaya Drive and Colonial Drive (Florida State Route 50) in the University of Central Florida’s campus, again from a better angle:*
Let me explain. It refers to Hanzo Shimada, a character in Overwatch who is a Japanese archer-slash-assassin with ties to a criminal dynasty. He’s a super #edgy loner with this tortured backstory that peaks when he causes the apparent death of his own brother. It’s a really sad story, I promise. There’s even a great animated short about it.
Overwatch requires players to pick a character and then carry out an objective with their team to win. Some of the options are great all-purpose characters, useful in many situations. But Hanzo, who fires arrows, is hard to use and not always relevant. Players who “main” Hanzo use him as often as possible, even if the situation doesn’t necessarily call for a Japanese assassin who fires arrows. When (not if) things go wrong, and if that player is a jerk, he will blame the whole team, even though he picked the wrong person to begin with.
That doesn’t sound familiar at all, does it?
Melissa Harris, spokeswoman for the Nuisance Committee, said the billboard was installed between Thursday and Friday and will stay up until Election Day.
“We’re trying to remind college students, young people, gamers that they need to stand up and be counted,” Harris wrote via email. “And this is the it game right now.”*
The ad also directs people to TrumpIsNotATeamPlayer.com, which calls out the various ways Donald Trump is unfit to be president—while also superimposing his face on other characters from Overwatch.
“Donald Trump has no regard for the American democratic process,” the website reads, “and has said that if he loses the election, it’s because the system is rigged against him.”
Harris identified the Chicago-based Daniel Warren Johnson as the campaign’s illustrator and Lindsey Camelio as its designer.*
Even if you don’t play Overwatch, or any video games, you’re familiar with That Person. You know, the one who doesn’t usually have anything useful to contribute, picks fights, and is generally the most inflexible and infuriating individual around. Donald Trump is That Person, and he is running for president.
It’s kind of like this video by Rundle67:
This billboard was paid for by the super PAC Nuisance Committee, which is also behind an anti-Trump billboard in Illinois that directed people to TrumpDoesntPayTaxes.com. And who is behind the Nuisance Committee? Why, it’s the creators of Cards Against Humanity. The company launched campaign-themed card packs earlier this year with the promise to split the promotion’s proceeds between “direct, legal contributions to Hillary Clinton’s PAC, contributions to groups opposing Trump, and get out the vote programs in swing states.”
*Update, Oct. 14, 2016, 5:15 p.m.: This post has been updated with information from Nuisance Committee spokeswoman Melissa Harris.
