The Taylor Effect or the Love Story Effect?
The NFL is winning big from Swift’s dalliance with Travis Kelce. Would it be the same if they were just buds?
Pop star and billionaire Taylor Swift is dating Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. As a result, the National Football League (NFL) finds itself courting a new paramour: Swifties, Taylor’s devoted fan base.
The NFL has tried to increase their female fan base before. They introduced a “female-friendly” clothing line for lady fans, which basically amounted to guy-sized Packers jersey, shrunk down and dyed pink. They launched a special page on the website that included recipes and promoted “homegating.” And they donated a little bit of money to breast-cancer related charities during the league’s long-gone Pink October efforts. Those efforts often felt like pandering. They were catering to the way that women were perceived, not to what women wanted. There wasn’t much behind them. These marketing efforts didn’t connect women to the sport in any meaningful way.
When men watch football, they are rooting for something. They are rooting for “their team” to win. Why? Because they care about their team. What did pink jerseys, dip recipes and donations give women to care about? (One might say “breast cancer,” and could then…
