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For a celebrity, being referenced in a Taylor Swift song can cause a PR crisis.
Swift’s new album alludes to conflicts with Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy, and Kim Kardashian.
PR experts spoke to BI about how they would position a client who’s been dissed in a Swift song.
Five days after Taylor Swift released “The Tortured Poets Department,” paparazzi finally tracked down her ex, Matty Healy, who seemingly inspired the album’s core drama.
But instead of getting a salacious quote or an explosive headline out of his response to being slammed by Swift in song, Healy’s deliberate non-reaction forced the tabloid to back down — and even show some reverence.
“My diss track? Oh,” Healy said, laughing. “I haven’t really listened to that much of it, but I’m sure it’s good.”
Even the tabloid, which suggested Healy “played dumb,” had to hand it to him: “Touché, sir,” TMZ wrote.
Taylor Swift in the “Fortnight” music video. Taylor Swift/YouTube
For Healy’s team, this sort of neutral-to-positive coverage of their client must have been a coup. The 1975 singer had been thrust into a social-media firestorm after Swift’s record-breaking album dropped in April, with fans sharing vicious TikToks and scathing tweets about his treatment of Swift during their love affair last year and reveling in his lyrical comeuppance.
Being dubbed “the smallest man who ever lived” by the world’s most influential pop star seems like it would prompt anyone to seek refuge in a doomsday bunker and wait for this all to blow over. But not Healy: He simply and artfully dodged the question.
Healy’s response, paired with his cool and casual tone, is a masterclass in image maintenance. It makes him seem “mature” and “respectful” — two words that Swifties would not typically use to describe a man who, if Swift’s lyrics are to be taken as fact, ghosted her and broke her heart after pledging to kill himself if she ever left him. But this kind of savvy PR pivot is necessary for any celebrity who finds themselves on the wrong end of one of Swift’s signature takedowns.
So how does one navigate this minefield while sustaining minimal brand damage in the process? BI talked to crisis PR experts to find out.
The Matty Healy method: Play dumb and show ‘due deference’
Taylor Swift and Matty Healy in New York City on May 15, 2023. Robert Kamau/GC Images
Of course, Swift is far from the only artist who’s written a so-called “diss track.”
“But when she does one, it makes headlines all over the world,” Evan Nierman, CEO of the crisis PR firm Red Banyan, told Business Insider.
Indeed, Swift has built her reputation as a confessional songwriter, weaving real-life stories into her lyrics. Her catalog is packed with palpable personal details, from the triumphant fireworks in “Dear John” to the keepsake scarf in “All Too Well.”
Swift has rarely confirmed the identities of her muses, certainly not in recent years. But thanks to the perpetual interest in her dating life, fans have little trouble tracing those details back to her exes and enemies.
“If guys don’t want me to write bad songs about them,” Swift said in 2009, “then they shouldn’t do bad things.”
Healy was not spared from this thought process. Nearly 10 years after he originally met Swift, they had a highly publicized relationship and breakup while she was writing “The Tortured Poets Department.” Throughout the album, Swift’s anecdotes about her then-partner are rarely flattering. She calls him “crazy” in “But Daddy I Love Him,” recoils from his “revolting” jokes in “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” and declares that he “deserves prison” in the livid breakup track “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”
Whether Healy really is the culprit in these songs or not, fans sure think he is. So the fallout must be handled accordingly.
According to Erik Bernstein, a crisis communications expert, Swift’s negative portrayal of Healy required him to strike a deferential chord in response — rather than attempt to dispute Swift’s version of events. He was likely advised to say he hadn’t listened to the album yet.
“I would bet a lot on him having workshopped that, and I think that’s a perfect non-answer,” Bernstein said.
This strategy closes the door to follow-up questions, which serves to de-escalate the confrontation.
“Nothing negative can be taken from it,” Bernstein noted of Healy’s response. “It’s just a simple, adult acknowledgment — even though you know there’s no way he hasn’t heard it.”
Nierman agreed, though he also made a point to applaud Healy’s “I’m sure it’s good” addendum.
“He’s showing due deference to the power of Taylor Swift,” Nierman said.
“He doesn’t want to put himself out there by attracting the ire of the Swifties,” Nierman continued. “If he hasn’t heard it, then he can’t comment on it specifically. And if he says nothing negative about her, then it stands to reason that he shouldn’t be looked at in a negative light. It’s a cleverly constructed response.”
But what’s next? Should we expect to hear a rebuttal to Swift on The 1975’s new album, whenever that may arrive?
Bernstein said it’s possible — many artists feel the need to express themselves honestly, to reclaim their own narratives — but if he were Healy’s publicist, he’d caution that that approach could drag out the drama.
“Sometimes you don’t want that to be your whole personality,” he explained. “So we would have to discuss, ‘How does this tie into how you want to be perceived? Do you want to be stuck in this loop?'”
The Joe Alwyn method: Keep calm and carry on
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn have reportedly broken up after six years together. Jackson Lee/Getty Images.
“The Tortured Poets Department” isn’t all about Healy. In fact, Swift said she began writing the album in late 2022, shortly before she split from her longtime partner, the English actor Joe Alwyn.
Throughout his six-year relationship with Swift, Alwyn repeatedly declined to answer questions about the pop star. He cast himself as low-key, even-tempered, and most of all, unwilling to discuss his private life.
Bernstein and Nierman said it makes perfect sense for Alwyn to continue this tactic — even as more people are dissecting his intimate affairs than ever before — because Alwyn’s silence doesn’t scan as unusual.
“We talk a lot about what expectations are and knowing what the expectations are from your audience. If the expectations from your audience are that, ‘Hey, I talk about my personal life. I talk about my relationships,’ not doing so here comes off as odd and maybe starts to build suspicion,” Bernstein explained.
“If you typically are pretty private, then staying private isn’t so strange and really isn’t an issue,” he added.
The Kim Kardashian method: Let anonymous sources do the talking
Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian at the 2015 VMAs. Kevin Mazur/MTV1415/WireImage
Swift’s beef with Kim Kardashian is nothing new; their bad blood dates all the way back to 2016.
But interest was reignited last month by Swift’s deluxe song, “Thank You Aimee.” The title is stylized as “thanK you aIMee,” which spells out “KIM” in capital letters.
The lyrics seem to cast someone — presumably Kardashian — as a schoolyard bully who taunted and injured Swift when she was more naive, but who has helped Swift grow into the woman she is today. “When I count the scars, there’s a moment of truth,” Swift sings. “That there wouldn’t be this if there hadn’t been you.”
Like Alwyn, Kardashian has yet to address the song in public, but Nierman said we shouldn’t expect her to.
“This is a long-simmering issue between two A-listers. There’s nothing new here, other than the diss track,” he explained. “With that in mind, a statement probably isn’t going to bring any new revelations. All it could do is rehash what’s already out there and it doesn’t advance anything toward closure.”
Nierman said it’s more likely that Kardashian authorized a member of her camp to deliver her reaction anonymously: according to sources cited by People, Kardashian is “over” the feud and hopes Swift will “move on.”
“I think it makes sense because it avoids throwing gasoline on the fire that’s already burning,” Nierman said, “if the goal is to try to tamp down the flames, turn down the heat and move on, which is what the quotes implied.”
Even for someone like Kardashian, whose fame far surpasses that of Swift’s ex-boyfriends — and who has tried to “clap back” at Swift in the past — responding directly seems like a lose-lose scenario. “The Tortured Poets Department” is already the most successful album of the streaming era, selling over 2 million equivalent units in its first week and dominating the Billboard Hot 100. Swift’s platform is tough to compete with.
Swifties are passionate and intensely defensive of their idol, especially when her stories of hurt and betrayal are written so vividly. By design, the other side of the story pales in comparison, and any attempt at self-defense would only invite more discourse. In this case, it would also be redundant, as Swift has already discouraged fans from behaving vindictively.
“There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed,” she wrote on social media when “TTPD” was released. “And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.”
Taylor Swift performs during The Eras Tour in Cincinnati, Ohio. Taylor Hill/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
While it’s unlikely Swift wrote that message at the behest of Healy, Alwyn, or Kardashian, it serves as an important show of self-awareness and compassion.
“I don’t think Taylor Swift really needs to negotiate with anyone. She has the bully pulpit and she has the star power,” Nierman said. “But she is a brilliant marketer.”
Nierman found Swift’s message to be consistent with her benevolent-leader brand; she previously implored her fans to act with “kindness” ahead of the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” which included her rerecording of the iconic takedown “Dear John,” which is presumed to be about John Mayer.
“Everything is done for a reason and any person would be a fool to bet against or to cross Taylor Swift,” Nierman said.
So if you find yourself on Swift’s dart board, he added, “the best that you can hope for is that the controversy dies down and that she decides to move on and stop talking about you. That’s the best you’re going to get.”
