The NFL (Taylor's Version)

Even Travis Kelce thinks it’s a bit much. vox.com/culture CULTURE   I genuinely don’t remember a single person in my lifetime who is or has ever been as famous as Taylor Swift (Princess Diana when she died? Beyoncé after Lemonade dropped? Trump?). Nothing has illustrated this fact as much as what happened when she began “dating” — whether or not they’re like, actually-actually dating is mostly beside the point — Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. All it took was a single appearance at a game in September for the entire media apparatus around these two celebrities to lose its collective shit and turn everything they possibly could into a force for synergy: Before the next game Swift attended, this time versus the Jets at MetLife stadium, the NFL updated all of their social media pages to include Taylor Swift references and spent the majority of the time pointing the camera directly at her box seats. Even the ads for The Voice that aired during the game used her song “Welcome to New York” to promote its new episode. As Emily Stewart headlines her explainer of this capitalist tornado, “[The whole Taylor Swift-NFL crossover promotion thing is starting to feel icky](.” —[Rebecca Jennings](, senior correspondent Correction: Last week's newsletter misstated the record length of the Hollywood writers' strike. It was the second-longest writers’ strike, ultimately lasting 148 days; the longest, in 1988, lasted 154 days. The whole Taylor Swift-NFL cross-promotion thing is starting to feel icky [image ofTaylor Swift cheering at an NFL game, holding up her cup]( Elsa/Getty Images Whether or not Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are a match made in heaven, Taylor Swift and the NFL certainly are, commercially speaking. As Swift makes appearances at Kansas City Chiefs games and rumors swirl that the pop star is dating the tight end, a marketing gold mine has sprung up. The buzz is inescapable, whether you’re a Taylor Swift fan, an NFL fan, both, or neither. Kelce’s jersey sales have spiked, as has the number of his Instagram followers. Game viewership has jumped as Swift fans tune in to catch a glimpse of her, and NFL games are already the most-watched programs on TV anyway. The social media chatter is endless. The media coverage is breathless. Seemingly everyone has weighed in including, inexplicably, Donald Trump, though he is saying what a lot of people are thinking — wish them the best, but also, is this even real? Conspiracy theories about whether this is a publicity stunt aside, it’s a win-win-win for everyone involved. The NFL makes inroads with younger and female viewers, putting the influencer campaign it’s been engaged in for years on overdrive. Kelce expands his celebrity further outside of football, which is something plenty of NFL players could use — football doesn’t guarantee you’re rich forever, and careers are often short. And Swift further expands her empire, sells some more concert and movie tickets, and gathers fodder for her next album. Taylor Swift is great at translating attention and loyalty into money. The NFL is great at turning attention and loyalty into money. Their combined forces equal ... well, you get the point. "It’s like a business bonanza that just appeared for two brands that have some of the biggest brands in the world,” said Andrew Brandt, a former Green Bay Packers executive and the director of the Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law at Villanova University. It’s not clear either needed more attention here, but they got it. It’s a cultural phenomenon. It’s a capitalistic spectacle. It’s fun. It’s also fraught. When Taylor Swift lends her brand to the NFL and vice versa, what exactly does that mean, and what is it in service of? And for either of these gigantic entities, it is even necessary? 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