12th April 2023, Mumbai: The Taylor Swift-Joe Alwyn split “discourse” is out of control online, and Swifties are gathering once more. Fans are in denial and even spreading conspiracies in response to the news that Taylor and Joe had broken up after six years of dating. Swifties have been criticising Starbucks and Duolingo for doing the same. Brands profiting off of someone’s personal heartbreak is definitely going too far.
A Starbucks their posted a banner asking customers to identify their Taylor Swift ex. The Starbucks beverages that each of Taylor’s ex-boyfriends represented were Hot Vanilla Latte for Harry Styles, Dragon Drink for Joe Jonas, London Fog for Tom Hiddleston, etc. Since women are ‘allegedly’ not allowed to date multiple men, Taylor has often been the target of sexist mockery for the number of partners she has had.
Contrarily, Duolingo tweeted a video of the Duolingo bird at Cornelia Street along with the statement, “making my final journey to Cornelia Street to give my sympathies.” Taylor’s song Cornelia Street, from the album Lover, is thought by many fans to have been written about Joe.
Taylor’s massive and extremely loyal fanbase is not having it. Many took to twitter to slam the companies for using someone’s personal life for marketing gains.
One user commented a report by Pop Pop Tingz regarding the backlash: “imagine going through one of the hardest days of your life and people just use it to their own advantage, you guys are sick.” One Twitter users named the companies “childish for their tactics. The full tweet read: “Living in a time where mental health is so prevalent and important, you’d think that things like this wouldn’t occur. Making fun of @taylorswift13 is so outdated and childish.” Another user sided with Duolingo over Starbucks. “Tbh Duolingo’s post does not deserve the hate. Whoever runs that account has always been a swiftie and though it’s still weird af to show up at someone’s apartment it’s not like tons of y’all haven’t shown up there to take pics and videos too hypocrisy. St*rbucks can choke tho,” a user by the name of @andyissdead tweeted.
Taylor Swift has been in constant media attention for various reasons. ET Times reported of her breakup with her boyfriend of almost seven years, Joe Alwyn. The couple allegedly met during the famous Met Gala of 2016, and have been together seen. News of their breakup broke out a few dating, the reason for their breakup being “clashing personalities”.
Swift is in the middle of her long anticipated Eras Tour, which kicked off from March 18 in Glendale, Arizona. Her most recent performance will be late tonight at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. This is the singer’s sixth cross country tour, her last being the Reputation Stadium Tour in 2017.