Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, publicity stunt or real love?
September 24, 2023, was the first time Taylor Swift was spotted at an NFL game. The game was held in Kansas against the Chicago Bears, Kansas City won that game 41 - 10. It wasn't even 24 hours later that people, mostly hardcore NFL fans, had a lot to say about this whole endeavor. Taylor attended 12 more games after that and fans on both qTaylor's end and the NFL’s started to go crazy. For those of you unaware of what in the world Taylor was doing, she is currently dating the Chiefs’ star player, Travis Kelce. Why is everyone making such a big deal about a girlfriend showing up to support her boyfriend? Well, it's Taylor Swift, and if people are going to criticize anyone about their life, they're going to criticize Taylor Swift.
Swift is a singer-songwriter who has completely taken over the world with her music. She is currently on the Era’s Tour right now performing all over the world, this tour is special because it covers every “era” Swift has gone through throughout her career. She performs for about 3 ½ hours and sells out shows so fast that Ticketmaster has crashed while tickets are on sale, multiple times. Kelce is a tight end who currently plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. He comes from a very football-oriented family, as his brother Jason Kelce played football, for the Philadelphia Eagles, as well. After Kelce went on his podcast talking about the friendship bracelets he made for Swift with his phone number on it, Swifties were on high alert as to whether or not she would respond. Things were quiet for a while until she officially attended a game. There were millions of pictures and videos of the two together, which completely broke the internet.
Is it Swift vs. the NFL?
To give you the short and sweet answer, no. Swift is an extremely well-known artist who has fans of all ages, mostly women, while the NFL fans are mostly men. The merging of these two groups has turned into a great opportunity for them to expand their fan base. But people, mostly middle-aged men, cannot stand to have their “football game” interrupted by Swift cheering on the team. Memes are being made about men wanting to pour hot sauce in their eyes every time Swift pops up on the screen, or TikToks of people turning off their TV every time Kelce scores a touchdown, and they show her. The NFL may have their own opinions on this, but their ratings and jersey sales are through the roof. While the Chiefs were the Super Bowl Champions last year, Swift has significantly increased younger female viewers for the NFL by about 2 million according to NBC. The Chiefs-Jets game, on October 1st, had the largest streaming service ever for a regular season game.
Is this a publicity stunt?
As an avid Swift and NFL fan, I love this whole relationship and everything that is coming out of it. Now from a PR side, it might appear as a publicity stunt, but the NFL is one of the highest-rated sports leagues in the world and Swift is the artist of our generation, so what more publicity could the two possibly need? Getting more fans in the NFL is always going to be beneficial, but is it worth all of the people saying so many negative things about Swift because the NFL is showing her during a game? According to Swift, she is simply interested in going to a football game, and having fun with her friends, and “does not care about pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.” As for the NFL fans, the Chiefs got their Super Bowl win, so is this relationship affecting your fantasy football team?
As Swift says, if the roles were reversed, would the dads, Brads, and Chads be shaking their heads and questioning how much of this she deserves?
Annie Gerrity is a junior at Grand Valley State University. Annie is majoring in Advertising & Public Relations with a minor in Marketing. She loves Taylor Swift, obviously, and reading books. She is currently reading the ACOTAR series and hopes to finish 24 books this year! After graduation, Annie hopes to move to a bigger city, outside of Michigan, and hopefully work in the communications or marketing department at a professional sports team.