One month after Nike fans destroyed their shoes, gear, and apparel after the company launched a Colin Kaepernick endorsement deal, some political extremists are trying the same tactics on their Taylor Swift merchandise.
Social media posts show people, many of whom had convinced themselves Swift was a member of the far-right, burning posters of the music artist and destroying CDs of her work, presumably in protest to her Instagram post Monday endorsing a Democratic Senatorial candidate and urging people to vote.
Now that strategy didn’t work out too well for Nike opponents. The company saw a big sales boost after the ads started running and received an estimated $43 million in free publicity, in large part because of opponents’ actions.
But that’s not stopping the haters.
they gave her their money and now they are breathing in carcinogen. the devil works hard but taylor swift works harder. https://t.co/bLyjpd8qs1
— meg 🤍 (@heartbodysouI) October 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/bardiswift/status/1049098248126779393
https://twitter.com/taylorswifkt/status/1049106093337694208
Swifties are having fun with the protests, noting that (just like Nike), Swift has already pocketed the money from the sales and pointing out that her announcement came just before the release of her new single “I Did Something Bad,” whose opening lyrics read “I never trust a narcissist / But they love me / So I play ’em like a violin”. Others are pointing to one of her biggest hits, which has an added layer of irony now: “Picture to Burn.”
While the post might have angered some, it also is responsible for a surge in voter registrations. Vote.org was flooded with new registrations after the post went live Monday, with as many as 65,000 people registering to vote.