SOLVED!
[Blind Gossip] Starting this week, you are going to be teased with photos of two musicians – one much bigger than the other – and media reports that they are dating.
They are not. It’s all a public relations strategy.
Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes: She wants to make the move from pop to more indie-sounding music. In order to get that kind of credibility, she needs to roughen up her image. Not a lot. Just a little.
Dating a bad boy would be a quick way for her to get there…. but her team knows that it would hurt her reputation and possibly alienate her existing fan base. That would be a HUGE mistake. So how can they get her to LOOK more edgy without actually BEING edgy? Have her PRETEND that she’s dating a bad boy!
Now, this will NOT be a faux romance like the ones you’ve seen from her in the past. You are NOT going to see them strolling through Central Park, holding hands, and sipping lattes. And you are definitely NOT going to see them making out, doing shots, and getting tattoos together!
No, you are just going to see them supporting each other’s work, maybe talking about a collaboration, and visiting each other or occasionally getting caught in the same place at the same time. The professional/personal line will be intentionally blurred. You are going to assume this means that they are dating.
We call this a Fill In The Blank Strategy. You won’t actually SEE anything. You will just THINK you know what’s going on based on the surrounding events. And your perception of her will change based on this.
There is no formal contract… yet. They are simply going to both work the tease from now through New Year’s. He’s kind of a wild card, so if it works out well and he doesn’t act like a jerk or do anything dumb (like get caught doing coke or making out with another girl), there will be a contract that will last through the start of her tour next year.
We love good P.R. strategies, and this is actually quite a clever little plan. He gets a big boost in his visibility, she gets to roughen up her image just a little bit, and nobody has to get their hands dirty! Meanwhile, both of their fan bases will go crazy with speculation for the entire duration of the faux relationship… leading right up to her next concert tour. And of course she’ll get a song out of it and big tour sales. Perfect.
She:
He:
SOLVED!
She: Taylor Swift
He: Matt Healy
Yes, the lovely Taylor Swift did it again! We knew that this “relationship” was fake from the start. Taylor Swift wants to make herself a little more indie. “Dating” musician Matt Healy from The 1975 was a quick and dirty way to do that.
Taylor Swift and Matt Healy worked the tease in December, but this fake “couple” did not make it into the new year. Matt Healy just turned out to be too uncontrollable, so this “relationship” did not make it to the formal contract stage.
While Taylor played her part, showing up at his concerts and leaking photos, Matt Healy simply could not keep his big indie mouth shut. Then, a couple of days ago, during a radio interview, Healy committed the ultimate PR sin: He admitted that the relationship was fake from the start! Ouch.
From EOnline:
Are they or aren’t they?
It turns out, they aren’t. The 1975’s Matt Healy and Taylor Swift may have exchanged phone numbers in the fall of 2014, but the musicians’ long distance bills haven’t gotten any higher. The British rock star, 25, addressed the rampant romance rumors last week during a radio interview with Australia’s 2DayFM. “It’s fake. It’s all bloody fake. It’s a farce!” he said of reports that he’s secretly seeing the pop star, 25.
“We met each other, we exchanged numbers in the same way that a lot of people in this kind of world do, and we spoke occasionally,” he said. “She’s the biggest pop star in the world and I’m in Australia. There’s no relationship or anything happening. It’s just funny how people really, really buy into that.”
Silly Matt! Of COURSE they buy into it! Taylor Swift fans buy into ANYTHING she says or does or even hints at! Taylor knows that, and that’s why she plays these little games with them. After a few very clumsy attempts at earlier staged relationships (see links below), Taylor Swift and her PR team have gotten more clever about it. They know that all they have to do is drop a few coy little hints and her fans will fill in the blanks and create a “relationship” where one doesn’t really exist.
Congratulations to Lux93 for being first with the correct answer! And kudos to all of you who picked up on the Fill In The Blank (Space) Relationship clue!
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