How Taylor Swift—Just Named “Best Celebrity Friend”—Can Avoid A Backlash
Is this the year of Even More Taylor Swift? Photo: Getty Images
If Taylor Swift were a stock, her price would be soaring.
The 25-year-old has a multi-platinum album, 31.1 million Instagram followers and scores of celebrity BFFs (everyone from Lena Dunham to Lorde). Her lastest single, “Bad Blood,” (with its epic, star-studded video) broke records on Vimeo. In the past year she’s bought a $20 million Manhattan pad, been appointed New York City’s global tourism ambassador, and performed as the ball dropped in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
She’s Elle’s cover girl for May (tagline: National Treasure); she’s incessantly adorable on social media. Oh, and Maxim magazine just declared her number one on it’s Hot 100 List (beating out Jennifer Lawrence and Candice Swanepoel). And this weekend, a UK Legoland revealed a giant installation of her face, naming her the most wanted “celebrity best friend.”
The New York Times declared 2014 The Year of Taylor Swift, making 2015 The Year of Even More Taylor Swift. Clearly, as she kicks off her major world tour, life is going okay. But fame is a fickle beast, and it seems almost inevitable that Swift’s total planetary domination won’t last forever. So how can she stay on top? We got an industry vet to give Swift some advice for avoiding an ugly backlash.
Beware of overexposure.
According to one veteran talent booker (who books celebs like Swift for national magazines and television gigs), who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Swift has an independent PR rep based out of Nashville who doesn’t play by the typical Hollywood rule book and is surprisingly open to new opportunities. “Hollywood publicists are on the same script. They generally advise a star to do just one magazine cover at a time. Less is more.” So landing on Elle and Maxim back to back is unusual. “I think it was a mistake to do both covers,” says the source. “Not because it hurts her, exactly, but because she just doesn’t need the publicity.” In other words, don’t saturate the newsstand to the point that people get sick of you.
Don’t go all-out sex-pot.
Part of Swift’s appeal has been her all-American, girl next door quality. While some celebs (Miley, anyone?) feel the need to shed that squeaky clean image as they come of age, Swift has so far kept things pretty PG-13. Last month she told Elle she didn’t feel she had to rebel against her sundresses-and-cowboy-boots days. “Like, I feel no need to burn down the house I built by hand. I can make additions to it. I can redecorate. But I built this.” Fair enough. But then she did borrow a slew of her costumes for the “Bad Blood” video from an LA sex shop. Says the talent booker, “She has always been true to herself, she’s not racy. That’s something that’s worked for a lot of A-list celebrities. Think of Jennifer Aniston, who is very un-threatening. These women with enduring star power, who sell magazines are the ones who could be your best friend.”
Avoid falling into the lifestyle brand trap.
Gwyneth Paltrow has Goop, Blake Lively has Preserve, and now Reese Witherspoon has Draper James. If you’re famous, there are plenty of ways to capitalize on fans’ desires to emulate your lifestyle. But while it can be easy to make money selling your favorite tchotchkes, it does make you vulnerable to criticism. Paltrow’s site has alienated a lot of folks because it seems so darn elitist. Lively’s is a strange jumble of the homespun and the overpriced. “Taylor is the perfect person to start a lifestyle brand, and she would probably do it well,” says the booker. “But she shouldn’t do it. Part of her strength is that she seems accessible even though she’s wealthy and glamorous, and if she starts hawking $75 candles, that goes out the window.”
Reveal something…but not too much.
“Celebrity is ultimately all a big popularity contest. Right now, Taylor is honest enough about her personal life, she feeds the beast just enough. She knows the balance.” It’s especially important that celebs seem genuine, which is why Swift’s girl power message and expanding troupe of female besties is so powerful. But fans will react if it starts to seem more calculated than real. “This network of celeb friends she’s curated by happenstance or strategy helps her image.” But, she cautions, if it starts to seem like a PR move, “Then it begins to feel fake and fake doesn’t go over well.”
And last but not least, be nice.
“The worst thing that could really happen to her brand would be if she was seen being mean to somebody,” says the source. “If she blows the nice girl image, if she’s ever caught on tape having a meltdown or screaming at a waiter, then her moment is all over.”