Aug. 20, 2025
Beyond the Easter Eggs: What Taylor Swift Really Did on New Heights
Taylor Swift didn’t just pop onto her boyfriend’s New Heights podcast for fun. She executed a masterclass in brand strategy. With over 16 million views and endless headlines, her first-ever appearance alongside Travis and Jason Kelce wasn’t casual. It was calculated.
In this episode of The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson, a look at the strategy behind the appearance. Why it mattered, what Swift accomplished, and how it ties into her broader narrative of album rollouts, relationship optics, and reputation management.
What You’ll Hear About in This Episode
- The Optics: Why Swift’s on-camera presence, couple dynamics, and emotional stories humanized her brand at just the right time.
- Message Control: How choosing New Heights over legacy media gave her total control of the conversation.
- Redirection Strategy: How this appearance quietly shifted headlines away from Blake Lively’s legal mess and back onto Swift’s album.
- Cross-Brand Boost: Why this was just as beneficial for the Kelsey brand as it was for Swift.
- The Long Game: How this single appearance sets up Taylor’s reputation, her relationship, and her album narrative for the months ahead.
Why This Episode Matters
Swift’s appearance is a case study in modern communication—blending personal storytelling, platform control, reputation management, and viral timing. It’s the kind of move every communicator, marketer, and leader should pay attention to.
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00:00 - Taylor Swift's Strategic Podcast Appearance
06:49 - Analyzing the Swift-Kelce Brand Alliance
14:26 - Full Messaging Control and Cross-Promotion
17:24 - Crisis Management and Distraction Strategy
22:57 - SEO Flooding and Reputation Management
27:23 - Distancing from Blake Lively Drama
WEBVTT
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So I wanted to show you something.
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Okay, what's in it?
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This is my brand new album.
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My brand new album.
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It's called the Life of a Showgirl.
00:00:08.660 --> 00:00:16.510
Taylor Swift fans think the queen of Easter eggs dropped some major hints that she will be the next Super Bowl halftime performer.
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Track six ruin the friendship.
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Something can be about me and it can still be none of my business.
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While Taylor didn't get specific, which headlines sensationalized her name, it's no secret.
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She was dragged into Blake's legal battle with her.
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It Ends With Us director and co-star, justin Baldoni.
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I'm watching Taylor Swift, along with over 16 million other people.
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Let's talk about it.
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Hey there, welcome to the PR Breakdown Podcast.
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I'm your host, molly McPherson.
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Let's talk about it.
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Hosted by her boyfriend, travis Kelsey and, of course, his brother, jason Kelsey.
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I posted a video yesterday.
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I took the afternoon off, went on a bike ride, got caught in a severe storm.
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Bad on me for not checking the weather app, but I thought you know what, what a great time to post something.
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And of course, I'm looking at the algorithm and there's Taylor all over the place.
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I did not watch the podcast at that point, but I was able to riff.
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Three reasons why the appearance on this podcast for Taylor Swift was brilliant.
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I will include a link in the show notes to that post.
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But in this episode of the podcast I want to expand on it.
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I really want to look at this appearance from a strategic communication point of view.
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I don't want this to be just Swifty content no disrespect, of course but I want to look at it from a strategic communication point of view because this is strategic.
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This isn't just fandom.
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Taylor does things for the fans, but Taylor doesn't do anything.
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That's not strategic and you have to respect that about her.
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And she's teaching a lot of strategy to her boyfriend, travis Kelsey, and Jason Kelsey.
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I mean, look at these two, look at the Kelsey brand and Jason's wife Kylie.
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They're a huge, huge brand right now and a big part of that is Taylor Swift.
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So let's look at the brand Swift from this appearance and what really like a case study for what you can learn about it.
00:02:22.745 --> 00:02:28.770
So in this episode not really scripted I just put down some notes from watching the podcast.
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When I did this social media post, like I said, I hadn't seen the podcast, but I heard a lot about it and the morning it released I read articles online from legacy press.
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So New York Times, washington Post, I read CNN just everywhere Everyone was writing about it.
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I felt like every editor out there just looked to the youngest person on staff and said write something about Taylor Swift.
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We have to be a part of the algorithm and the trends so we can get the clicks on the story and the views.
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So, whether it's on social media or views video, whatever it is or printed, people wanted to talk about this story.
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Now, I'm not going to be a hypocrite, it is.
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Or printed.
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People wanted to talk about this story.
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Now, I'm not going to be a hypocrite, I'm doing the same thing, but it's not because it's Taylor, it's because it is a trending story that everyone's paying attention to, and I love ripping out case studies from topics or content that everyone's talking about.
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So let's look at some strategic objectives from Taylor Swift's appearance here.
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So let me just bring up my notes from watching the podcast.
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I'm probably three quarters of the way yeah, a little over half where they're talking about Andy Reid.
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Now I have to be honest.
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This is no hate to Taylor Swift, but the New Heights podcast and Taylor Swift is not targeted to me.
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I'll just say that it is straight like an arrow targeted to her fans, because she's sitting there.
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First of all, let's just start with the optics, in terms of the objectives.
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Now, I know that there's a lot of content out there that will decipher all the Easter eggs that you see and all the different things that Taylor strategically does.
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Now, she did mention in this podcast that she's into numerology and she loves Easter eggs.
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She just loves it, and that's something that I do love about her.
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I saw a post on Instagram or TikTok last night from someone who is an artist and she was like pulling out books and the art that she sees there, so she was talking about the colors.
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By the by, in the social media post, I was wearing a green color which matches Taylor's green color here, and also, when I was finished biking, I put on my orange Patagonia skirt, so I was wearing Taylor colors without really even planning for that.
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So I cannot decipher a lot of the Easter eggs, the optics, but I can tell you what I can decipher from the two of them together.
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I have maintained this from the very beginning with these two.
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Is it a PR relationship?
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Yes, all good relationships are, because it's a mutually beneficial relationship and there's mutual collaboration, mutual love, all mutual aspects of relationships where they're positive, but the benefits areas because these aren't friends benefits these aren't partnered with benefits.
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It benefits't partnered with benefits.
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It benefits both of their brands, which, if you're in a good relationship, that's what it should do, right, even if your universe is just your world.
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So these two absolutely help each other's brands.
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I personally think that Taylor Swift is well beyond Travis Kelsey.
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I feel that Taylor, intellectually this is my only Molly hot take.
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I don't think I've ever heard anyone say this.
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I think, intellectually, taylor's a better fit for Jason.
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Honestly, jason's the smarter one of the two.
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He really helped Travis when they were at Cincinnati, when they played there and when Travis got kicked out of school, it was Jason who really helped him.
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Jason brought him there and then when Travis got booted, jason is the one who kind of brought him back in.
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So Jason has been that big brother who's led everything.
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So I think Taylor is more on Jason's level, but from a brand point of view, clearly, like she matches with Travis.
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Travis's brand is cool for him.
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It's dead on it's football player.
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Football players don't need to be brilliant.
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Him, it's dead on it's football player.
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Football players don't need to be brilliant, they just need to look good, fit, that kind of bro mold, which is exactly what Taylor's image is, so it's perfect.
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So the two of them are there, always holding each other close, and, you see, like a genuine part of the relationship.
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Now, strategically, why I think this matters is because they played off of how serious is this relationship?
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Is it fake?
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Is it there only to benefit each other?
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They're showing, no, that we're real.
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There's something here.
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We're invested in each other.
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They joke how they met.
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It's all very, very genuine and I think this is very good for both of them.
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So this podcast appearance also like breaks beyond the predictable press cycle.
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It's not just Taylor and Travis again at games, because they couldn't do that.
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If Travis went into the season where it's more of this kind of peekaboo like how serious are they, are they not?
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It would have been old hat and people would have started to turn on Taylor, because that's the cycle People love you and then they get tired of you and then they backlash you.
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Taylor's too smart for that and her head of PR, really strategic mind, tree Payne, is too smart for that too.
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So they needed to recycle yet create something new for the new cycle.
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So these two as like a really close couple.
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That's brilliant.
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And also, even in this episode they're tapping into the NFL franchise.
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I mean I don't think anyone has said those many glowing words about Andy Reid, the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, ever.
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No surprise, taylor Swift's dad is a buddy of Andy Reid.
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It kind of fits the whole story vibe and culture of Taylor's family background.
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I think this kind of group leans more conservative.
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When I think of the Chiefs, when I think of Kansas, when I think of every person I know, for the most part from Kansas, they kind of lean towards this conservative area, very male-dominated.
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But respect, like a woman like Taylor doing this, they respect their mamas, they respect Donna I mean not that the Kelsey brothers are from there, but just Kansas, the whole thing, the Chiefs, it just fits, everything fits in the brand.
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The second reason why it's brilliant is because you have full messaging control.
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Today I had a call with a client someone who's just going through it, and I'll leave it at that and we were looking for a place to address what they're going through.
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But I don't like doing it on social media like where the haters are.
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You want to do it in a place that you own and it's just a different environment.
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And the reason why is because you have full message control.
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A podcast like this gives you full message control.
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She's not sitting down, so age alert, with a Mike Wallace or a Barbara Walters or let's see who.
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Gosh, gosh, who's our like biting journalist of today who asks like hard questions?
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I don't even know Like Rachel Maddow.
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She's more political, anderson Cooper is more.
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Anyway, I don't even think we have them anymore.
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Everybody's like content creators.
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But this puts them in a space that they have full control over everything that they're doing and they're saying.
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It's also a very safe environment for them.
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Again, I mentioned the cross-promotion mutual benefit.
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New Heights gets a big jump.
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It's before the season.
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They came in early because Taylor wanted to time it, which is smart in late August.
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That's a very smart time to do it.
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We're kind of in the pre-preseason, so football's just getting started, but the buzz isn't really there just yet because we're not in like the official deep into it, where people are really gearing up because we haven't even hit Labor Day yet and she's announcing it's kind of like the pre-launch of the album.
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So smart.
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There's no big news happening in late August, it's just viral stories and she created herself as a viral story and she gave a massive boost to New Heights.
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Next, there's an emotional connection for the brand humanization.
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You know she talked about her parents spending time with their parents.
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She got very emotional when she told the story of her mom and her brother getting the masters of her music.
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She started to cry and she explained the story when she came in to tell Travis, who was playing a video game headphones on with the buddies and he shut it down and then went to her and she was so excited and cried I got my master's back and then explaining to Jason and then Jason's asking all the questions because he's smart.
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Jason Kelsey is a really good interviewer.
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By the way, I really like Jason Kelsey a lot.
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He's a smart guy and he's such a kind of a dude too, like he makes messy mistakes but he just doesn't care, like.
00:10:24.577 --> 00:10:33.446
I love Jason Kelsey for that, but he's a really really good interviewer and he interviewed them in a way that made them both very human, like you could look at your friends.
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For people my age who's been friends decades earlier, let's say new relationships when you have friends in new relationships, they're close and they still sound like that were new.
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So he brought out that human element quite well and also brought up kind of that behind the scenes aspect which people love about Taylor Swift.
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So it's balancing like polished storytelling, like even when she's talking about the health of her father and what he went through and how they spent a lot of time in Florida and how family is so important and how Scott's buddies with Andy Reid, the coach, the Chiefs it just showed that their circle's pretty tight there.
00:11:06.658 --> 00:11:11.725
Taylor talked about making sourdough bread for Jason's girls with Kelsey.
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Those are very human stories that if you think about Taylor Swift, she doesn't let anybody in.
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That's been her brand from the beginning.
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You only get to see what she wants you to see and a lot of it wasn't private at all.
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You got to see insights, curation behind her friendships, but you weren't getting it.
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This is the first time she is really really letting you in behind the scenes.
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I just think it worked All right.
00:11:36.557 --> 00:11:41.032
Next let's get into the area of crisis management and distraction strategy.
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This is my lane, this is what I pay attention to and this is what I noticed.
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This podcast gives her redirection from a new cycle, an algorithm cycle that includes Blake Lively.
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Ryan Reynolds tried to do what Taylor Swift is doing right now control their own messaging around their relationship and around Blake Lively's experience on the movie set.
00:12:13.182 --> 00:12:16.096
It Ends With Us with director and co-star Justin Baldoni.
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They tried to outmanage it and it did not work.
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They are still suffering from it one year later and if you've seen any of my content about it year later and if you've seen any of my content about it, I am not, by default, a pro-Justin Baldoni person at all, but when I look at what's going on, I think Justin Baldoni is being completely railroaded, not necessarily by Blake Lively, but by Ryan Reynolds.
00:12:38.981 --> 00:12:45.350
I think it was all orchestrated and I'm just going to say I don't do this to myself a lot, but I called this in August.
00:12:45.350 --> 00:12:46.057
I was writing for Forbes back then.
00:12:46.057 --> 00:12:46.984
Now I'm on a lot, but I called this in August.
00:12:46.984 --> 00:12:47.890
I was writing for Forbes back then.
00:12:47.890 --> 00:12:55.339
Now I'm on Substack, but I was writing for Forbes and I wrote a story and I was following along what was happening in August.
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Because Ryan Reynolds is someone I pay attention to because I don't see what he says.
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I don't even listen to what he says, because I don't like to hear what he says, because he drives me nuts.
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Honestly, what he does just jumps out at me and it's jumped out at me for a year and that's why I noticed it last August when I wrote a story about it.
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The social media curation and public relations around Blake Lively was so artificial to me and it was so strategic and not in a smooth tree-pane Taylor Swift way, in a very clunky, arrogant Ryan Reynolds way.
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So Taylor Swift has been caught up in their maelstrom of just incompetence and ego and she is trying actively to remove herself from it.
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I've had podcast episodes in the past where we talk about this, where I've talked about what has been dropped in TMZ.
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These are direct drops from her team going there.
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You absolutely see her strategically distancing herself from Blake Lively, not just from a brand point of view and a reputation point of view, but also from a legal point of view.
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She does not want to be swept up in this court case.
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She does not want to be called to trial in March.
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She wants nothing to do with this at all.
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So that's why I think it's redirecting the news cycle to her relationship with Travis.
00:14:09.351 --> 00:14:24.173
So that sets them for the fall season, because even like, travis is getting a little long in the tooth for an NFL career when you get to this point, even when you're Tom Brady like Tom Brady gets to the point where he's almost like a robot because of what he puts in his body and how he views his health.
00:14:24.173 --> 00:14:28.592
I don't think Travis pays the same mind to his health.
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I mean pretty decent, the guy looks good, don't get me wrong.
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But Travis is a little more typical of NFL players that have been at it that long.
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At some point your body just can't keep up.
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That's why Jason Kelsey's already retired now.
00:14:40.573 --> 00:14:42.797
It's been two seasons, I think he's already been retired.
00:14:42.797 --> 00:14:45.360
He might have an on and off season.
00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:47.423
Okay, we saw parts of it last season.
00:14:47.423 --> 00:14:50.889
So it actually matches too, like these two tight like this.
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So if Travis Kelsey does have an up and down season, it will make them look good because Taylor will be there and Taylor will be there a lot during that season because they'll definitely cut to her a lot and it also is going to ensure that the album is the focus of anything with Taylor Swift.
00:15:06.601 --> 00:15:09.557
It's going to be Travis and then Blake Lively.
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Ryan Reynolds is going to be so far down she doesn't want anything to do with it.
00:15:13.317 --> 00:15:23.051
It also creates narrative flooding and SEO flooding On my post because I kept saying SEO on my post and I was a little surprised how many people said what's SEO?
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Or someone wrote on my post I'm writing search engine optimization for people who don't know and I thought, wow, do people really not know that?
00:15:29.604 --> 00:15:31.332
Well, molly, shame on you.
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You should have said that.
00:15:32.677 --> 00:15:33.821
Don't assume that everyone knows.
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I just assume, if you're on TikTok, what SEO means, so not pat on the back there, molly.
00:15:39.107 --> 00:15:42.333
Search engine optimization it's what happens when you search a name.
00:15:42.333 --> 00:15:48.042
So if you put Taylor Swift, does it say Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey, or does it say Taylor Swift and Blake Lively?
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No, it's going to say Taylor Swift, new Heights.
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Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey.
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Taylor Swift Album Drop.
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Taylor Swift Life of a Showgirl.
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Like there's going to be so many other searches before you get to Taylor Swift and Blake Lively, and that is by design.
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It also created headlines.
00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:17.554
Headline makes for SEO and now, with AI GPTs out there that are just pulling and scrubbing the internet, more people are going to find this content and they're going to hook to these stories.
00:16:17.554 --> 00:16:21.873
So it's actually going to shift anything that you put on AI as well.
00:16:21.873 --> 00:16:32.442
So that's why it's smart and this podcast appearance dominated trending lists across social media YouTube, apple Podcasts, x, tiktok, google News, all of it.
00:16:32.442 --> 00:16:33.370
So smart, smart, smart.
00:16:33.952 --> 00:16:36.097
It's also preemptive reputation management.
00:16:36.097 --> 00:16:37.942
She doesn't even bring up Lively.
00:16:37.942 --> 00:16:42.077
It shifts the conversation away from that friendship.
00:16:42.077 --> 00:16:49.456
Is there still a friendship to her artistry, her masters, her relationship and her business milestones?
00:16:49.456 --> 00:16:57.777
That's the narrative that she wants out there and it also demonstrates her being more proactive about than reactive.
00:16:57.777 --> 00:17:05.160
She's getting so far ahead of any potential issues with this case because Lively's already sat for a deposition.
00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:06.343
It is still going on.
00:17:06.763 --> 00:17:13.106
You know over the summer that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds they went after content creators Like every mistake that they can make.
00:17:13.106 --> 00:17:23.968
It seems like they are making from a reputation point of view Now, from a long-term PR and brand benefit, the reputation optics, relationship optics, as a reputation shield.
00:17:23.968 --> 00:17:32.207
Right now she isn't just Taylor Swift, she's Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey, and I think she's going to be Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey at least until December.
00:17:32.207 --> 00:17:42.117
If the Chiefs go deep into the playoffs and work towards a Super Bowl, then maybe we'll get it to January and maybe we might get it into February, but I don't know.
00:17:42.117 --> 00:17:42.479
I don't know.
00:17:42.479 --> 00:17:45.736
I don't think this is going to be their year, but they have Mahomes.
00:17:45.736 --> 00:17:48.390
I mean it is a good team so it could go deep into the season.
00:17:48.832 --> 00:17:50.916
I think we're going to get relationship Taylor Swift.
00:17:50.916 --> 00:17:53.861
We're also going to get multi-category media coverage.
00:17:53.861 --> 00:17:58.586
We're going to get press in sports, in lifestyle, in music, in business outlets.
00:17:58.586 --> 00:18:01.190
There's going to be expanding brand touch points.
00:18:01.190 --> 00:18:03.018
This album is going to be absolutely everywhere.
00:18:03.499 --> 00:18:09.603
Someone said in my comments that the album is released on National Boyfriend Day and I think National Plaid Day too.
00:18:09.603 --> 00:18:13.219
Someone said that in my comments, which, again, all sorts of clever.
00:18:13.219 --> 00:18:19.559
But this whole rollout is reaching audiences that might not otherwise be engaged with a traditional album rollout.
00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:24.557
I think with Taylor Swift, you're always going to get news about a rollout, but when she does it like this, there's so much more.
00:18:24.557 --> 00:18:26.801
There's also long-tail content leverage.
00:18:26.801 --> 00:18:32.663
So hours of footage are now on TikTok, instagram Reels, youtube Shorts it's everywhere.
00:18:32.663 --> 00:18:34.248
It flooded social media.
00:18:34.248 --> 00:18:44.376
I'm recording this the day after the release, so I'll be curious when this podcast airs how many views will be there.
00:18:44.376 --> 00:18:45.238
I wonder if it will double by then.
00:18:45.238 --> 00:18:46.099
But my goodness.
00:18:46.099 --> 00:18:49.487
But for a preseason episode, 16 million views.
00:18:49.487 --> 00:18:50.568
That's crazy.
00:18:50.568 --> 00:18:55.143
And finally, it frames the album as a milestone project.
00:18:55.143 --> 00:18:57.949
It was inspired by the heiress tour.
00:18:57.949 --> 00:19:03.605
She explains how she would decompress in the bathtub.
00:19:03.605 --> 00:19:06.537
There's just so much artistry to it.
00:19:06.537 --> 00:19:08.883
The colors, the songs.
00:19:08.883 --> 00:19:17.821
Now I don't know, but she does know that there still will be a connection to Blake Lively.
00:19:17.821 --> 00:19:18.743
There has to be.
00:19:18.743 --> 00:19:19.746
That's just how it works.
00:19:20.347 --> 00:19:23.578
Taylor Swift mentioning in this podcast that she doesn't read social media.
00:19:23.578 --> 00:19:30.718
Now, on the one hand, that doesn't help her, because there's a lot of people there who get really excited because they think they're getting likes or something from Taylor Swift.
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Taylor Swift is coming out and saying no, that's not me.
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