5 October 2023
(NEXSTAR) — You may be up to your ears in coverage of the rumored romance between music superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce but Swift’s presence at Chiefs’ games continues to make headlines — and even a bizarre conspiracy theory.
Since Swift attended the Chiefs’ Sunday night game against the New York Jets, the photos and celebrity appearances have flooded social media, news articles and search engine suggestions. Now, some are speculating that creating a lot of new results when someone Google searches “Taylor Swift” and “Jets” at the same time was the entire point of her going to the game.
You may be wondering: But why would she do that?
It all goes back to earlier this year when Swift caught sky-high criticism for her use of the private jet she owns. In July, data and marketing firm Yard named Swift the top offender in its list of Celebs with the Worst Private Jet Co2 Emissions.
Yard’s research reported that Swift’s jet spent nearly 15.9 days total in the air, accounting for about 8,293.54 tonnes of Co2 emissions, “or 1,184.8 times more than the average person’s total annual emissions.”
Despite Swift’s representative telling Yard “Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect,” the clarification did little to quell concerns.
“I don’t care who’s on the plane, it shouldn’t be making those flights and producing all those emissions,” one person wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “If you own it, you’re responsible for it. They should all be flying commercial (and flying less).”
But the backlash faded as time went on and more Swift-universe news took focus, including her record-breaking The Eras Tour, which is currently paused before one final 2023 date and more through 2024. Now, with the word “jet” and “Taylor” back in the news, comes this interesting SEO-gaming theory.
“… A month ago if you looked up ‘Taylor Swift Jets’ you would get a ton of articles about her private jet emissions but now if you search it up, you get articles speculating about her relationship,” one X user said this week.
The concept of burying undesirable news with search engine terms isn’t new, there are plenty of celebrity SEO-based conspiracy theories. A few that can be found across social media include Disney changing the name of “Frozen” from its original title, “The Snow Queen,” to muddy results for people researching the long-fabled cryogenically frozen head of Walt Disney. Another such theory includes the actor Rob Lowe, who starred in the 2014 comedy film “Sex Tape” — which would potentially help occlude search results for the leaked 1988 videotape that helped derail his career.
Could Swift’s appearance at Met Life Stadium this past Sunday turn out to be such a clever move? The world will likely never know.
In the meantime, it is likely coverage of the Swift-Kelce rumored romance will continue, though neither have officially confirmed any relationship. The Chiefs’ next game will be Sunday, Oct. 8 against the Minnesota Vikings — stay tuned for any Taylor spottings.