Cuomo’s revamped campaign launch proves Mamdani-style videos don’t work without Mamdani

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Zohran Mamdani should feel extremely flattered.

Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary last month, just kicked off his campaign as an independent in the general election—with a launch video that could generously be described as an homage to Mamdani’s acclaimed video style.

While the clip may signal Cuomo’s willingness to play the social media game on Mamdani’s terms, it seems destined to simply highlight and magnify the contrast between their efforts.

Perhaps the most striking thing about Cuomo’s new launch video is the stark difference from his previous one.

Released back in March, the former governor’s opening salvo in the primary was a 17-and-a-half minute dirge about the dire straits in which New Yorkers currently find themselves, and Cuomo’s unique ability to lead them into the light. Speaking indoors and direct-to-camera—as he did during the daily briefings that boosted his national profile in the early days of COVID—Cuomo struck a moderate tone about the “threatening“ feel of the city and the importance of supporting the NYPD.

He closed by essentially asking New Yorkers to complete his redemption arc, without dwelling at all on what he’s done that needs redeeming. (Cuomo resigned in 2021 after 13 women accused him of sexual harassment, which he has denied, attributing his resignation to “political pressure and media frenzy.”)

That video, however, debuted before Mamdani earned wide praise for his steady output of engaging campaign videos. Short, splashy, and sunny (in both light and tone), not to mention overwhelmingly New York-centric, Mamdani’s clips gave voters a flavor of the candidate’s personality and policy promises. They often racked up views in the millions.

The extent to which Mamdani’s video team—which includes director of digital Andrew Epstein, videographer Donald Borenstein, and production agency Melted Solids—helped Mamdani win is hard to gauge without polling. However, judging by Cuomo’s first video since losing to Mamdani in the primary, the former governor seems convinced those videos helped quite a lot.

From doom and gloom to hope and change

Cuomo’s campaign relaunch video, released just after confirming his candidacy on Monday, clocks in at a breezy 90 seconds. The new clip features the former governor out on the leafiest streets of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, shaking hands and taking selfies with supporters.

All the while, he and the city are bathed in lighting that suggests someone on his team simply ordered “the Mamdani filter”—and that New York has magically morphed into a less threatening place than it was four months ago.

It’s quite a departure from Cuomo’s previous video.

“You’re not going to out-Mamdani Mamdani,” a representative for Cuomo’s campaign told Fast Company in a statement. “However, we readily admit that our social media game during the primary wasn’t resonating. We own that and we made some changes to better reach New Yorkers.”

Fast Company also reached out to Mamdani’s team for comment, but did not hear back before press time.

The problem with Cuomo’s new Mamdani-fied approach is that, by the very nature of its clear imitation, it lacks authenticity and smacks of desperation.

Footage of Mamdani greeting his supporters on the street may have resonated with voters not because they’d never seen a candidate do such a thing before but because of how much those supporters light up when they see him and how he appears to effortlessly mirror their energy.

Mamdani’s videos also wisely include audio of those supporters interacting with the candidate, rather than relegating them to b-roll footage as Cuomo did—making them feel less like flesh-and-blood people than political props.

It’s also difficult to take the newfound positivity of Cuomo’s video seriously when he still can’t resist mispronouncing his opponent’s name in it, at this late date, after previously doing so repeatedly, with Mamdani correcting him in real time on the primary debate stage last month.

(A new Mamdani video that debuted Tuesday morning begins with an outtake of the candidate gently correcting Brooklyn Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn on her pronunciation of his surname, adding “You know what happened to the last guy that got it wrong,” and then both sharing a hearty laugh.)

Reactions speak louder than words

Social media observers immediately clocked the familiar feel of Cuomo’s campaign relaunch video—along with the visible boom mic in one early shot—and called it out on both X and Bluesky.

The most brutal response, however, may have come from Mamdani himself.

Even before Cuomo confirmed he would remain in the face, Mamdani caught wind of his opponent filming an ad, and tweeted about it. 

“We got him making man on the street videos with a guy in Carhartt,” Mamdani noted. “By next week, he’ll be sipping adeni chai and eating khaliat al nahl.”

After the eventual video surfaced online, Mamdani apparently decided not to say anything, but rather let his supporters’ enthusiasm do the talking. He replied to Cuomo’s tweet of the video with just a link to the donation section of his own website. Mamdani’s reply has so far received nearly three times as many retweets as Cuomo’s, and roughly 32 times as many likes.

Perhaps we’ll find out next whether Cuomo is as inspired to approximate his opponent’s social media dunking prowess as he is Mamdani’s videos.