The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has recently utilized imagery from the video game franchise Halo to promote its initiatives on social media. A post featured characters and a Warthog vehicle from Halo, accompanied by the text “DESTROY THE FLOOD” and a link to the recruitment webpage for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The post was captioned “finishing this fight.”
This promotional strategy follows a previous post that used the original Pokémon theme song in a montage of ICE raids, which was captioned “Gotta Catch ‘Em All.” Both instances suggest a comparison between immigrants and entities from popular video games, with the Halo reference specifically likening undocumented individuals to the Flood, a parasitic alien species in the game.
Responses from the companies involved have varied. Microsoft, which owns Halo, has not provided any comments regarding the DHS’s use of the game’s imagery. Similarly, requests for commentary on related content from the White House and GameStop have gone unanswered. In contrast, Nintendo addressed the earlier Pokémon post amidst concerns about its association with ICE raids, stating that the company had no involvement in the creation or distribution of the content and had not granted permission for the use of its intellectual property.
These promotional efforts raise questions about the appropriateness of using popular culture in relation to serious government initiatives and the implications of such comparisons.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/807514/trump-white-house-dhs-ice-halo-image-meme-gamestop-console-wars