It’s official, the age of the ‘Instagram hard launch’ for celebrity relationships is over - Taylor Swift has confirmed it. Over the weekend, the singer seemingly confirmed her relationship with footballer Travis Kelce by attending his NFL game at Arrowhead Stadium alongside his mother (in a luxury box, of course). We say nonchalantly, it was about as nonchalant as a Taylor Swift appearance can get, with an absolute furore ensuing online.
With the pair caught on video leaving the stadium together, the sighting comes after months of Hollywood whispers that they have been secretly dating. By whispers, we mean Travis spilling the tea on his podcast, which is what first started the rumours. On his podcast New Heights, he told listeners months ago that he had attended the Eras Tour (at the same Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City!) and was interested in the singer. ‘If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it,’ he said.
Publicly shooting his shot clearly worked then, because the pair appear to have been hanging out ever since. What we’re more obsessed with though, is this new, casual way celebrities seem to be making their relationships public.
Relationship announcements used to be much more contrived: a manly hand holding a beer in the background of a dinner plate shot on Instagram Stories was considered a ‘soft launch’. Then would come the dark video of back of a head, conveniently turning away as the camera – shooting some irrelevant bar atmosphere – panned the scene. Finally, we’d be treated to the hard launch: a birthday tribute ‘celebrating this one’, and if we’re lucky, we’d even get a photo dump spanning months of secret dates that proved just how serious this relationship was. The relationship was now online and real in the eyes of the social media Gods – essentially a ‘Facebook status’ update, if we’re really going back in time.
Nowadays, celebrities are doing something different… practicing authenticity, maybe? We saw it with Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet first, with months of incredulous dating rumours confirmed with a chic drop by of a Beyoncé concert. He’s still not made it to her ever-exclusive IG grid, and yet we’ve seen them packing on PDA at the US Open. It’s like we’ve gone back in time, to a world where solidifying your relationship status on social media has become… irrelevant?!
Taylor hasn’t followed suit on the PDA front, her and Travis weren’t even holding hands as they exited Arrowhead Stadium, but the family outing somehow feels much more intimate. This may well have been the first time Taylor had met Travis Kelce’s mum, but something tells us someone as protective of her reputation wouldn’t chance a first family-meet in public. Was it all as nonchalant a decision as it seems, to go to the game knowing it would finally confirm months of speculation about Taylor’s dating life? Celebrity PR expert, Mayah Riaz, isn’t convinced.
‘Taylor knows if she is photographed with any man, the rumour-mill will go into overdrive. Therefore, make no mistake that this was a well-planned PR move of announcing their relationship,’ Mayah tells Grazia. ‘It has been strategically designed to generate maximum exposure for their relationship. The showbiz world is no stranger to meticulously planned PR moves, I know this because I've planned many. Prior to making any significant announcement, celebrities and their PR teams consider multiple factors, including timing, target audience, and the most suitable platform for maximum impact.’
Make no mistake this was a well-planned PR move of announcing their relationship.
MAYAH RIAZ
So then, what’s with this new trend to announce relationships just by, well, living? From a viewer perspective, it certainly feels like a more authentic way to announce a relationship – something that would undoubtedly go down well with Gen Z, whose love for messy, less-contrived social media content perhaps extends to why they favour certain celebrities too. Something about seeing Taylor screaming support for her new beau alongside his mother feels so much sweeter, less staged – something Gen Z would post about for weeks on TikTok, with edits of the couple set to Taylor’s most romantic songs.
Of course, there’s the reputational benefit of being photographed alongside Travis’s family too. For Taylor, who has consistently faced misogynistic press whenever a new love interest is on the scene (and is constantly condemned for dating ‘too many’ men) this first sighting of Taylor with Travis’s mum sends one clear message: she’s family approved. Now, she’s not just Travis’s new girl, she’s a ‘daughter-in-law’, a ‘wifey’ if you will. We say this with eyes rolled, because none of it should matter, but from a PR perspective it certainly forces tabloids to move away from the classic ‘Taylor’s got ANOTHER boyfriend!’ narrative and focus more on the sweet, family outing that positions her as ‘serious relationship material’.
For Mayah, a public appearance like this isn’t just about reputation, it’s about increased exposure. ‘An NFL game offers the perfect platform to announce the relationship. The NFL is one of the most-watched sports leagues globally, so it guarantees extensive media coverage and a massive fan base,’ she explains. ‘Taylor ensures her relationship announcement reaches a broad audience beyond her usual followers, potentially captivating sports enthusiasts, and Travis' fans. The combination of a high-profile relationship and a widely watched sporting event generates further buzz on social media, increasing the potential for viral exposure.’
It’s not just about garnering more fandom, of which Taylor already has tones, it’s also about dispelling negative press around the announcement, says Mayah. ‘Taylor's team can control the narrative surrounding her relationship, ensuring it receives the desired exposure while minimising any potential negative speculation or rumours.’
The Swifties among us might second-guess why so much calculated planning could go into a such a wholesome moment. Perhaps it’s not all that contrived, perhaps it’s just too ‘basic’ to announce a relationship on IG these days. Much like changing your Facebook status, posting an orchestrated ‘couple shot’ online to let followers know you’re ‘off the market’ might have crossed the line from commonplace to cringe.
But then again, real Swifties know just how masterful Taylor is at controlling the way she’s perceived – and why shouldn’t she? After a lifetime of tabloids pedalling misogynistic narratives about her dating life, late night hosts making fun of her, interviewers pushing her to acknowledge relationships with men she’s merely pictured alongside, Taylor has been through a tortuous mill when it comes to the way her relationships are perceived.
It makes sense that she’d be protective over controlling the narrative, but by the same token, it makes sense that at 33 years old after so much misreported about her, she might have just said ‘Fuck it’ and gone to her boyfriend’s NFL game, watchful eyes be damned. Either way, we’re here for this new era of real life launching. Goodbye, IG hard launch, we’ll always remember you for the caption change on Tom Holland’s birthday posts for Zendaya.