You have to wonder whose idea the flat cap was. Did David from Bolton – the star of the Conservatives’ slick new TV ad – bring his own, or was he issued one on set by Dominic Cummings himself? The ad, which is currently doing the rounds on social media, features a member of the Tories’ burgeoning northern electorate, speaking to camera, northern-ing it up, and explaining why he – once a Labour voter – has embraced Brexit and Boris Johnson. The kicker being when he literally embraces Johnson, who appears as what we are led to believe is a “nice surprise” for David from Bolton.

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Since last year’s “factcheckUK” scandal, in which – during the ITV leaders’ debate – the Tories rebranded one of their official Twitter accounts as a fact-checking service, the party has proven itself to be both devious and surprisingly adept when it comes to social media strategy. From the soft, plicky-plucky guitar music, to the plain white studio background, the David from Bolton video could not be clearer in its purpose: detoxify the brand.

While this unnerving level of savviness may seem at odds with the party’s demographic (67% of the electorate aged over 70 voted Conservative, as opposed to 21% of 18- to 24-year-olds, according to YouGov), data on their social media engagement tells a slightly different story. While Labour may have the most likes and follows across all platforms, analyses by We Are Social shared with PR Week just before last year’s election showed that the Tories were ahead of Labour in most metrics other than audience size. That is to say, Uncle Clive on Facebook is liking the hell out of all those “get Brexit done” nuggets of Conservative content.

The Tories have a history of slick ad campaigns, dating back to the infamous “Labour isn’t working” poster by Saatchi & Saatchi that helped elect Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Whether their refocusing of this tactic into the murky chaos of the online world will have any impact whatsoever on their demographic is yet to be seen. Likewise, the extent to which the Tories’ official social media output (as opposed to rightwing content in general) was responsible for their landslide last year cannot be known.

Much of the Tories’ rejuvenated social media efforts have been attributed to the party’s digital adviser, Chloe Westley. It was Westley – reportedly – who came up with the idea of using Facebook Live for the “people’s PMQs”, a stunt launched last year in which Johnson answered pre-arranged softball questions from the public, via live stream. Predictably, this particular piece of strategy was denounced as drippingly propagandistic by anyone with the slightest media sense.

For a number of reasons, the David from Bolton video is hard to watch (although, as I write this a million people have done exactly that). David – who many online have already speculated is actually an actor called Tarquin from Clapham – claims to be a highway maintenance worker with hopes of starting his own business. For unquantified and rather mysterious reasons he – like many others who voted leave – believes that Brexit will somehow be key to this happening. At the very least, no attempt at a joke is made in the video. Much unlike Johnson’s viral Love Actually parody video, put out before the election. Aside from the potential for decades’ more Tory rule, a genuinely terrifying factor at play in the party’s astroturf campaign is their discovery and interpretation of memes. Beware: the Tories have discovered “humour” and they’re not afraid to use it. See also: their tweet from 31 January …

“Boris: Let’s get Brexit done.

Also Boris: Got Brexit done.”

Side-splitting stuff. Watch this space for another job ad from Cummings, looking for a bright young “weirdo” to head up the Department of Dank Memes. Gen Z: we’re looking to you to keep the existence of TikTok under wraps.

In all fairness though, these attempts at funny may prove to be the party’s undoing. I’m convinced, for example, that the closest Labour came to winning last year’s election was when the Conservatives tweeted that picture of Jeremy Corbyn in a chicken suit (which was immediately adopted by Corbynites on Twitter as a pro-Labour meme).

With the Conservatives having just won their largest majority in decades, the timing of the David from Bolton video seems odd. Brexit – as some may have noticed – is very much a thing, and softening anybody to it after the fact seems pointless. But whoever Johnson is up against in four years’ time better have a half-decent meme game.

• Eleanor Margolis is a columnist for the New Statesman and Diva