The topic I chose for my Discovery Project is Taylor Swift and everything surrounding her “romance” with Travis Kelce. The three major conversations surrounding Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are what the Swifties are saying, what football fans are saying, and what companies are saying online.
The Swifties
The biggest conversation of the three is all the Swifitie conversations buzzing around social media. They are pretty much split, one side loves Taylor and Travis and the other does not. The side that loves Taylor and Travis does outweigh the other side though. Usually, all the tweets, Instagram posts, or videos are about the various pictures of Taylor at the games or her and Travis after the games. What the Swifties are saying is that they love how happy Taylor looks and how Travis isn’t afraid to talk about her and be seen with her in public. This is because Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was very private and never really talked about her. Some hashtags being used are #taylorswift #traviskelce #chiefs #swifttok. The other side does not like how everyone is focusing on Taylor because of a man, especially because a lot of the talk has been about marriage and babies. These Swifties also don’t like the relationship because of Travis’s political affiliations.
Source: .kyleeshouserry’s post on TikTok
Source: simpofthesapphics (Lexa)’s post on TikTok
Non-Swifties
The other conversations surrounding Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are all non-swifities. These people are usually football fans, either casual or superfans. They are mainly trying to educate Swifties on football or just mainly engaging in memes or overall comments on their relationship. Some of the people who have added to this conversation are actually Travis Kelce and his brother on a podcast they have. On last week’s episode, they had Swifties submit questions about football questions and they answered. Travis also was able to address his relationship with Taylor. They are using pretty much the same hashtags as the Swifties side of this story.
Source: Post on Barstool’s TikTok
Source: Post on betr’s TikTok (sorry for the explicit language!)
Companies
One of the most surprising sides of this story that I found was the role that companies have had in its circulation. As soon as the first pictures of Taylor at that first Chief’s game came out, so many companies took it and ran. The NFL, ESPN, the Chiefs, the Eagles, and even Heinz used Taylor at the football game for some kind of promotion. The Chiefs and the Eagles both tweeted and posted talking about her. The NFL changed its bio on social media to “The NFL (Taylor’s version)”. Heinz, which was the most surprising for me, advertised a new sauce called “ketchup and seemingly ranch” based on a tweet posted by a Taylor Swift fan profile on the day she went to the first Chiefs game. The role that these companies are playing in this relationship makes me believe it’s a publicity stunt, especially with the Taylor Swift-themed intro they played before they played before this Sunday’s Chiefs game and the commercial for Taylor’s movie that played during the game.
Source: Henry Enten’s reporting on the “Swift effect” on CNN’s TikTok
Source: NFL’s X homepage
Source: TMZ’s post on X
Conclusion
In brief, Taylor Swift has been one of the biggest talks of the summer with her tour, the announcement of her documentary, and her re-recorded album announcements and releases. This and the football season definitely added to the fire of Taylor and Travis, but the whole Taylor and Travis relationship has become one of the most talked-about topics in the past couple of weeks. The biggest groups initiating the conversation around them are the Swifties, the non-swifties specifically football fans, and companies.