Why did we care that Taylor Swift was ATTENDING the super bowl

DrPop@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 111 points –

I don't follow sports nor care enough about pop music to really know what was going on. I truly though she would be performing with the sheer amount of press on the matter even here. What the hell did Republicans think she was going to do inside a luxury box other than have weirdos snap photos of her drinking beer?

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Republicans have been trying to get out ahead of a suspected (by them at least) endorsement of Biden by the widely popular billionaire superstar. They want to manufacture as much rancor and outrage against her and any peripheral involvement to what they claim was a rigged game as they can. If they throw a big enough fit, that if she DOES endorse Biden at some point, they can just screech about how they saw it coming and the Superbowl was rigged and... whatever other demented shit they think might stick.

So really, Most people just don't care Swift was at the game, then there's the usual media fervor about the latest idol of the week doing anything, and finally everything she does is being amplified by Republicans in an effort to prove their latest conspiracy theory.

Also, cynically:
Swift is savvy enough to know she can enjoy the free PR.
The NFL has realized they can use her presence to sell their game to a generation of women.

There were two makeup ads this year, which is a lot higher than the zero there are typically.

Nice win-win. And a great way to give regressives the middle finger. Or better yet, make them go nuts with impotent rage by not even addressing them.

We don't, but she's a famous music star dating a famous football star, who is in the game.

Advertising runs the world, and whatever gets more clicks and eyeballs gets paid, so everyone has a reason to hype it.

Because she's that popular.

I'm willing to bet there were a comfortable 7 figures worth of extra viewers just because she was at the game.

Oh yeah, it's the NFL deciding on who to show on camera. Ignoring an untapped market of Swifties that tune in to watch football now just because she supports a team would be an idiotic business decision.

If anyone gets mad at someone here, they should be mad at the NFL, it's a business like any other business, also don't forget to USE THE TEMU APP, SHOP LIKE A BILLIONAIRE

It's CBS. The NFL doesn't run the broadcast. But not Taylor Swift lol. I don't think she even did anything to draw attention to it besides existing.

I actually enjoyed seeing her in the stands, though. She was very clearly emotionally invested in the game, and I thought her reactions were genuine and added to the broadcast.

We don't.

Right wing cultist morons do, because I guess they think that everything is somehow a giant conspiracy against Trump, because thinking that helps them process and cope with the fact that Trump is always in the news for saying and doing bad or dumb shit.

A lot of right wingers were upset.

A lot of football fans were also upset and it had nothing to do with politics.

Thankfully, they only showed her ~twice in the first half and ~7 times in the second. We had bets going on!

A lot of football fans are also right wingers.

Plus it's stupid to not expect extra coverage of the photogenic famous person dating the famous athlete who's playing a pivotal role in the game.

Who's we? Didn't even know the Superbowl was on until I saw a meme and remembered it was that time of the year.

It's the best shopping day of the year. I couldn't care less about football, but I love the superbowl because it means stores and roads are empty.

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Other people have explained the conspiracy theories and just that Swifties are a somewhat untapped audience for the NFL. But I’ll just add that it’s not the first time the broadcasters got obsessed with a player’s telegenic wife or girlfriend. (WAGs is a whole term popularized by the UK media covering soccer players’ wives and girlfriends.)

This time, the girlfriend happened to be one of the most famous people on Earth so it was everywhere. But I remember in like 2007 when Brady Quinn’s sister, Laura was dating AJ Hawk in college. Brady and A.J. were on opposing teams for a big game so she wore a half Ohio State and half Notre Dame jersey. They interviewed her on the pregame show and showed her so much, I still remember eventually getting annoyed. (She is apparently now Laura Quinn Hawk so I guess the relationship worked out.)

Sports broadcasters always show celebrities and, if they’re media-friendly, WAGs. Like any NBA game in NYC or Los Angeles has a “celebs in attendance” moment. Sometimes, it becomes a whole media thing. I remember a game where Beyoncé and Jay Z sat court side for a game Lebron was playing (for Miami). Lebron talked to them for a minute and Beyoncé looked flirty and impressed with Lebron at one point. It got the NBA in every gossip magazine for a week and I’m sure they happily provided permission to use photos and videos.

Most of us didn't. Some did because she's a famous pop star dating one of the star players on the KC team. There was also a right wing conspiracy theory that the game was going to be rigged for KC to win so that Swift could somehow get more support for Biden. I didn't quite understand how that was supposed to work, but it seemed to get more credence than you'd suspect.

The idea was that Biden was rigging the game and then Kelce would propose to Swift after winning, who would funnel the insane amount of media hype into a Biden endorsement. Kelce wins the Super Bowl, Swift gets attention and a happy boyfriend, and Biden gets a big endorsement.

They probably don't know that they've been dating for less than a year.

The idea was that Biden was rigging the game

Come on now. Biden Sorry, Dark Brandon has already admitted that they rigged the game for the Chiefs.

Seemed like there were a lot of variations. It was all:

  1. Superbowl rigged for Chiefs
  2. Something something
  3. Taylor Swift uses it to promote Biden

Step 2 never seemed to make much sense, whatever it was

@AFKBRBChocolate Rigging or no rigging, if she did endorse or support Biden or whatever, there are enough dumbasses out there that might see a KC win as some kind of Biden endorsement from on high.

I put that down to projection as usual on the part of the GOPs conspiracy theory wing, though.

@DrPop

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We didn’t. However, the network airing it and their advertisers were damn thrilled for any added eyeballs on the game. Lots of young girls didn’t care for football but now are watching because she is absolutely huge in that demographic. Naturally, they made it a big story.

Republicans hate her because she is a threat. She has started to be more vocal politically, and Republicans know if she can get more of gen Z and younger millennials to vote, they won’t be winning in November. So they are lashing out and generating conspiracy theories.

Are you new to outrage media? Of course Swift was going to do nothing. Republicans knew it. They are still going to leverage the situation to drive ad clicks and campaign donations though. $$$.

Because you're talking about her. She generates clicks and even if you didn't give her a click you're spreading the word for them.

From what I've seen on Lemmy at least, nobody really cared that she was attending but we had full popcorn bowls to watch the rest of the world lose their shit about it.

The rest of America*

The rest of the world didn’t give a shit.

What's a super bowl?

c/SuperbOwl

Sometimes they have contests to vote which owl is more superb.

So is Talor Swift judging the owl competition this year?

No she was just there which is why OP is annoyed.

Scandalous, with a name like that she was obviously born for the job.

Aw man! I thought they raced the owls!

No wonder I lost my bet!

Which is bullshit as all owls are superb in their own way.

I’m boycotting the superb owl competition and anything related to the Swift family.

Apart from the more normie reasons, she's also infamous for her carbon footprint with her jet shuffling here and there.

I don't care whatever political agenda they push on her. The carbon footprint (and singer) factor is more realistic.

I cared a little. But in my defense, I don't pay attention to football at all except for the Superbowl, and even then it's tentative. I honestly thought she was performing the halftime show with the way everyone was going on about it. I didn't even know Usher was performing until I put the game on.

She's famous and pretty. That means her attendance is a form of approval and this makes swift fans fuzzy inside plus it's an opportunity to be in the same space as her.

Wasn't the Superbowl in November around American Thanksgiving or something?

Anyways, you're going to have to answer for your part on why "we" cared.

No. The SuperBowl happens in February every year.

Damn. Isn't there some football thing around American Thanksgiving? Or did I just imagine that up? Lol

Either way, both of those months seem too cold to me for outdoor sports that aren't on ice. Especially February, which is in Winter. It's fun how different things can be in different places.

There's usually a game on Thanksgiving, but that's kind of just because of how the schedule works out. It's a regular season game, nothing special.

Gotcha. Thanks for confirming I wasn't imagining that association! Haha

November / American Thanksgiving is towards the end of college football season, and when they tend to schedule rivalry games.

Blue School and Red School have been playing each other for 80 years, current record is 37-43. Who will win this time? Drink some Bud Light and find out!

Except they don't drink Bud Light anymore because the trans people stole it somehow. So drink water, I guess?

And why do you think this needs to be a Republican vs Democrat thing?? Interjecting politics into everything isn't a good look. I really don't even see where that came from because I have friends that are Democrats and that's what they watched the Superbowl this year to see. I also have Republican friends who also watched the Superbowl to see shots of her. All of them are Taylor Swift fans, and not football fans. So you have to bring up political views for what reason? I get it, politics are polarizing, but it gets quite tiresome when people on both sides of the aisle feel the need to make everything divisive. We have two teams playing a football game, isn't that enough competition and division for one day?

Because Republicans made it political with their insane conspiracy theories.

Have you been paying attention to anything?