#Taylors publicists

[foxes-that-run]

Can you give more insight into the One Directioners fueling the 2015/2016 cancellation of Taylor? I know the media clung to the Kimye scandal, but I live for the deeper story...

This is so long, sorry I have lots to say apparently! I posted recently how Taylor planned and hinted at reputation's themes in 2015, long before of the Kimye famous/snake issues.

I also do not mean to imply that Taylor wanted that drama, or that that drama was not pivotal, it absolutely was pivotal and I think unwelcome. But I think she saw sentiment turning, and maybe also wanted to change her image - or perhaps it was a symptom of a problem she was already aware of.

Paula Erickson

Taylor's publicist before Tree in some ways laid the groundwork for this. Paula was Taylor's publicist from 2007 - 2014 and positioned Taylor as a wholesome girl next door and used a lot of brand endorsements like diet Coke. She didn't manage or address rumours though, she left Taylor to talk directly to fans and a member of her team possibly even directly leaked things on Tumblr in the Haylorsecrets account (if not connected she still did nothing about it). She didn't combat rumors and Taylor's serial dater image took hold, despite her saying she only dated 2 people 2011-2013.

Directioners

The Directioners very protective of the boys, and especially Harry. The youngest and the one with the most jarring image as a womaniser when he was what seemed like still quite a sweet sheltered teen. I think Taylor was also quite sheltered and I think 'frozen in the age she got famous' as she said in Miss Americana. But she is a few years older, more established and viewed with jealousy by some overprotective fans and the media as a maneater. Yet they did drag her, up and down. In the But Daddy I love him post I have some tabloids and a tik tok I think sum it pretty well. Throughout 2012 - 2014 they dragged her and it often went viral, the then unknown Halsey went viral with Haylor Song to the IKYWT tune.

It came to a head in early 2014 when Paula Erickson left, she left mid- March 2014. They parted way acrimoniously close to 60 days after Red did not with the Grammy. On 8 April 2014 a Page Six article said Paula had given 60 days notice and disagreed with Taylor's parents.

Tree Paine

Tree started in May 2014. Tree was more aggressive in addressing rumours. Tree also cultivated relationships with particular publications to give messages and Taylor's own socials took a step back. Tree started in the last months before 1989, with time to shape it's release as her first acts, however Reputation was Trees first full era. The way the concept of a reputation was being hinted as, as were snakes, disappearing and taking longer after 1989 were all there I think it was part of a strategy for Tree to position Taylor as a more mature, edgier artist and also to protect Taylor. While Paula's approach was that Taylor was everyones, accessible to all and relatable, which left her exposed to non-fans online Tree positioned her as a protected commodity. I think there are possibly elements in the album about her reputation and how she is viewed coupled with changing publicist that is part of the overall picture.

2015 controversies and Calvin Harris

Taylor was outrageously successful in 2015, she is absolutely more exposed now but her chart dominance seemed more so, things were measured differently then, and it was more organic. She was hard to escape because she was so successful, I think that is part of it. Also the album was about Harry and widely known as such which fuelled directioner drama, along with the band imploding at the same time and Harry's solo future clear for everyone to see.

On the 1989 World Tour the Clean Speeches directly addressed the way she was treated and spoken about online and what that cost her personally.

Armed with a more proactive publicist, with the landscape of music changing Taylor took on Apple Music and streaming services taking her cataloge down and writing an open letter to Apple. It was a baller move, she was a huge artist at the top of her game taking on Apple, which then had more of a monopoly than they do now. She was looking for a fight, I think she was tired of being defenceless, she had changed publicists and picked a fight with the biggest thing on the playground. Rep was coming.

Calvin and Taylor were very public, then their disagreements became so and Taylor was pulled into more drama. Calvin was rumoured to be unfaithful, Taylor defend him. Calvin and Zayn got into a Twitter fight, which Louis got involved in. It was initially over Taylors letter to Apple but was thinly veiled that Calvin hated One Direction and vice versa.

All that led to Taylor telling Vogue in November 2015:

"Then I’ll feel like I’ll need to give people a breather from me because at a certain point they’re going to get a little sick of hearing about me, so I’ll need to go away for a while then, depending on my gauge on how sick of me they are, I’ll decide when to put out the next album.”

Of course, in 2016 Kayne built on what maybe was intended as a calculated image recalibration into something much worse, but I do think Reputation as a theme was intended long before that.

So the GP / fans of others who disliked Taylor did play a role, but I think the journey is more complex than it was this person or this group of people.

[shitswiftiessay]

Ok Tree Paine

“There is no bad blood” and she literally liked shady posts about him on instagram last week but sure, I believe you, this definitely isn’t DAMAGE CONTROL because Taylor’s getting called out for treating Joe badly and inciting her fanbase on him for a whole year when he wasn’t actually that guilty to begin with.

But sure Tree Paine lol, I believe you.

[daenerys-targaryen]

[sparksflys]

.

[edsheerankinnie]

Being a swiftie rn is so hard like. Maybe you are Wretched. Maybe you are Fearsome. Maybe you are Wrong.

@taylorswift SPEAK NOW🍉🇵🇸

[taylorvaughnsaidso]

context: Pia is Travis Kelce's publicist.

Where's that tik tok of the comedians dishing about their hairdresser who knows Travis' publicist 👀

someone's getting fired...

[mytearsrricochet]

it’s my birthday so I get to say one controversial thing and y’all can’t be mad at me:

tree paine is not a great PR agent at least when it comes to taylor because my god

[finnickodaiir]

Tree Paine has stans.....?

[iwatcheditbegin]

How are you a publicist being so damn messy and unprofessional on main?

[gregdotorg]

Kissinger Kissing Her Kissing Ass

Henry Kissinger molesting Elizabeth Taylor in 1976, and Bob Hope's nepo nephew Peter Malatesta staring at Belgian actress Monique van Vooren's mink-wrapped rack, also in 1976, also in DC.

Both photos by Andy Warhol.

[tashizweig]

okay i'm literally obsessed with him

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

*

[sparksflys]

Continuing with the Tree conversation. I think to make what makes her a good publicist is that, while specific fans may disagree on her approach, the general public eats it all up.

Like you mentioned the Matty situation and how it was handled. I can see that fans may think it was hurtful or not handled well but if you observe the attitude towards Taylor from the general public, it didn’t have a negative effect? So that to me signals a publicist whose work works. The overall perception of Taylor is positive, stuff like the Matty thing or the Ticketmaster thing (which actually I think was handled well since I’ve not seen many people blame taylor) don’t stick, the perception of her isn’t impacted negatively because of how it’s handled (wether that’s by silence or by articles distracting or addressing it)

Lastly, you say we don’t know what annoys taylor but, because tree doesn’t do this stuff often, when she does it then it’s clearly a sign of it being something that annoys Taylor. If tree was always tweeting or something I would agree that it’d be hard to tell when it came from taylor, but because she doesn’t then it seems to me that when she does there’s a reason for it. Also while we may think tweets are stupid and just give deuxmoi exposure, I think they worked to bring this conversation about the boundaries of gossiping and speculation and about deuxmoi’s gossip specifically and also pretty much everyone is taking Taylor’s side

I got to admit I’m not well versed in publicists and what makes them good or not but it just seems to me that if Taylor is succeeding and keeps growing and no criticism of her sticks, then that must be a job well done

Good for you if you think she's good! I still don't :/ I'm not well versed in publicists either. To be honest, I don't think she helped with any of these situations because when they were happening it was bad for Taylor (for the M*tty situation many people were calling her out and not only her fans, for the private jet thing one of my friend literally only calls her a polluter now), the only reason people are responding "well" now is because most of them literally just forgot after some time (the world moves on another day another "drama" u know) and because of Taylor's character

[wttnblog]

From Person to Publicist: The Evolution of Celebrity and Image

The layperson’s first brush with everyday perfection came in the ’90s when the daughters of New York City’s richest power players decided to make their life consumable to the average person. Rather than hiding inside of mansions like the millionaires of yore, these women—such as Paris Hilton, Casey Johnson, and Olivia Palermo—were seen both at red carpet events and blackout drunk at nightclubs.…

[urgeforgoing]

hi Hailey, I totally see what you mean about us not knowing whether it came from her team or not

But I think for me it’s just been a month of so much dissonance and disappointment with her remaining radio silent on the problematic character of her new fling

I know we can’t trust tabloids but in a weird way, she kind of has trained us to fawn at their teases, and it’s been like this for years (it feels like so many of the snippets we saw of her relationship with joe came from tabloids and paparazzi photos) — of course calculated if you look at it from that angle but also pretty much the only sort of discourse she’s done

I could be wrong but don’t publicists feed these magazines certain lines? I am sure that it spreads and snowballs into completely different comments as soon as one person gets an exclusive but the one about her being on top of the world and also the one that was so bitter towards fan’s hurt (the one that mentioned Tom) just stung.

and I know again that we can’t attribute it all as coming from her mouth but aren’t some publicists comments the “insiders” on a handful of them? I just thought that was kind of a thing

I’m really not familiar with the whole process because I no longer read tabloids and if I ever do see an article of that sort, it’s always on here with lots of commentary. I’m still in the mindset that these publications are not super reputable that they feed on gossip/drama. I was actually looking for more context as to how we know this specific article’s content was leaked by her team. I figured someone might know a little more than me on this. I’m not trying to brush off what was said/come across as inherently distrustful of the article, just that I was confused as to how genuine we should take it.

I’m vaguely aware celeb publicists will use ET and People to confirm information the celeb might not actually want to speak about, such as a break up, but as for the contents of the article being 100% accurate, I’m not sure. The part of where “she is a grown woman who can make her own decisions/she is not swayed by the controversy” can be taken in a multitude of ways depending on how it’s being spun and for her to want to come across so flippant seems completely out of character for someone who’s built a career on empathy/being nice.

The comment that she’s “on top of the world” also rubbed me the wrong way. Why would her team want to release that statement? No one going through a break up after a 6+ year relationship is on top of the world and neither is someone who’s usually very loyal fanbase is angry with them.

If it was an attempt at a PR fix by her team, it seems like it was a pretty bad call since there’s a much more delicate conversation to be had than “whatever I don’t care!” and her team usually seems pretty good at cleaning up her messes.

[finnickodaiir]

Can my dad stop bringing Taylor up 😭