How Taylor Swift's recordings play into the Virginia race for governor

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Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is betting that Taylor Swift fans can help prevent his state from turning red.

The Democrat, who is running for the seat again on Nov. 2, has a new five-figure ad buy that connects his opponent, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, to Swift's bitter battle to gain control over the master recordings of her first six albums, including Fearless, Red and 1989. Youngkin is the former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group, which financially backed the 2019 sale of Swift's masters to Ithaca Holdings, an umbrella company owned at the time by music manager Scooter Braun. Swift's masters have since been sold again.

Not everyone will see the ads connecting "T-Mac" and "T-Swift." They'll appear on Facebook and Instagram for users who engage with Swift's content and on Google when people in Virginia search for her name. The Facebook ads appropriate the rallying cry #WeStandWithTaylor adopted by Swift's fans, also known as Swifties, during the battle over her music.

Full story here: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043424679/how-taylor-swift-and-her-masters-are-playing-into-the-virginia-race-for-governor

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"Terry McAuliffe has reached the stage of desperation in his campaign where he's rolling out the most baseless attacks to see what sticks," Martinez said in a statement.

 

agreed 

[Guest]

I live in Virginia and was listening to the radio today and just laughed so hard because this came up and the average person is not gonna give a ****. Republicans are gonna vote for him regardless and the average person who is a swing voter doesn't care about Taylor Swift's problems in how it's gonna affect how their state is run.

[Nemo 4,294]

28 minutes ago, Aetheryte said:

I live in Virginia and was listening to the radio today and just laughed so hard because this came up and the average person is not gonna give a ****. Republicans are gonna vote for him regardless and the average person who is a swing voter doesn't care about Taylor Swift's problems in how it's gonna affect how their state is run.

Not every ad is targeted at the average person. And not everyone is making a choice between candidates -- sometimes, it's a choice between voting, or not bothering. So, if this ad -- on top of everything else -- nudges some Democratic Swifties just enough to go vote, when they otherwise were going to stay home... it could be worthwhile. (Will it? Who knows. I agree that it seems a bit silly, but I gotta assume that a multi-million-dollar campaign has put some research into any ad that it puts out.)

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, Nemo said:

Not every ad is targeted at the average person. And not everyone is making a choice between candidates -- sometimes, it's a choice between voting, or not bothering. So, if this ad -- on top of everything else -- nudges some Democratic Swifties just enough to go vote, when they otherwise were going to stay home... it could be worthwhile. (Will it? Who knows. I agree that it seems a bit silly, but I gotta assume that a multi-million-dollar campaign has put some research into any ad that it puts out.)

Granted I work in a different industry, I work in marketing and I some ads we run are simply because the CEO wants us to, despite us and leadership telling him its a bad idea. This will not bode well publicly. He's already getting heavily criticized.