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Last week at this time, Taylor Swift had yet to touch down in Kansas City, ranch dressing had yet to take over our collective consciousness, and the word “seemingly” had yet to be reduced to a meme.
Last week at this time, we still knew peace.
I’m just kidding, but the Taylor Effect has truly stormed the sports world for the past seven days straight, and celebrity gossip aside, the economic impact of this rumored relationship has been significant.
The NFL broadcast of the Chiefs game with Swift in attendance had the highest viewership of the weekend, averaging 24.32M viewers.
Kelce's jersey sales saw a nearly 400% spike, and he’s gained over 250,000 Instagram followers.
Heinz released a product called “Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch,” inspired by one seemingly (sorry) innocuous tweet.
Kelce's podcast, co-hosted with his brother, reached No. 1 on Apple's charts.
Swift is expected to attend the Chiefs' Week 4 matchup against the New York Jets, leading to an 18.5% increase in ticket prices, with some tickets going up to $2,109.
Ticket sales for the Chiefs' next home game also surged, with StubHub reporting a “significant increase” in ticket sales following Swift's appearance.
On TikTok, #traviskelcetaylorswift has 65.5M views and #traylor — their couple nickname, as decided by Swifties — has 58.3M views.
And this is just the beginning. Now that Taylor’s attendance has been confirmed, tonight’s game at MetLife is going to be an all-out spectacle. If you’re tired of reading about these two, I have bad news for you: Even logging off for the next twenty-four hours will not be enough to avoid what is going to be an absolute onslaught of headlines, tweets, TikToks, and memes.
Today we’re talking about:
Baby Phat’s Gen Z rebrand
Joomi Joolz comeback when?
Mall mainstay Express needs a miracle
Sephoria’s last-minute cancellation
Stuart Weitzman 5050s 🤝 the TikTok generation
Nike's Y2K dad shoes
“Heart NY” overkill
The 24-year-old who outsold Oprah
This weekend’s viral Gen Z TikTok wedding
The N/A beer brand bigger on TikTok than Coca-Cola
College girls are wearing baby bibs as cropped tops
The Vagina Whisperer
Cycle syncing
Faerie porn
And everything else that happened this week in brands, trends, and internet culture — a lot of internet culture, a little less of brands and trends because the WWW* was OOC** this week.
*world wide web
**out of control
Before we jump in, my favorite TikTok of the week:
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