When the news broke about the Bills’ plans to sell Swiftie snacks at the Chiefs game, the Twitterati had their feathers ruffled. Some Swift fans are using the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to whine about what they consider to be the ongoing exploitation of their heroine, while others say they’re just so over all of the Taylor mania.
Some are even expressing suspicion that the NFL is masterminding all of this Swift hype, including themed foods, and that this year’s Super Bowl will be just as scripted as Wrestlemania. After all, if the Chiefs get a guaranteed spot, this means the company can move more Swift-themed merch. A few X users, however, did remark that the food looked tasty, as well it might since it covers all of the meaty, cheesy, saucy, and fried stadium food groups. One tweet even suggested that, once you eat one of these items, you can simply “shake it off for the calories.”
Some X users are pointing out the incongruity of the Bills concessions stand naming items after Taylor Swift, who dates a member of the opposing team, while it’s never once given a shout-out to Steinfeld. Unfortunately for the actress, this is likely because she’s a lesser luminary than Swift. The two, despite their difference in star power, do have some history together, as they were friends back in the 20-tweens. Steinfeld also appeared in the “Bad Blood” video, so her fans can think of those Bad Blood waffle fries as being a stealth tribute to their girl as well as to Swift.
Taylor Swift is the undisputed queen of celebrity serial daters. At age 34, she may be the Millennials’ answer to Elizabeth Taylor, although she’s yet to wind up at the altar even once. Her latest romance, however, has been a marketing boon for an unlikely ad partner. Since she’s dating a football player this time, the NFL — particularly the Kansas City Chiefs (boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team) — has been promoting the Swift tie-in to make serious bank. So serious, in fact, that some assume the romance is kayfabe and will likely fade once the Chiefs’ season is done.
In the meantime, however, it’s not only the Chiefs that are using Swift for advertising purposes. The Buffalo Bills have added a few new items to their concessions menu for their AFC Divisional Game against the Chiefs. Stadium vendor Delaware North has christened a couple of items for the big occasion — that is, not the playoff game itself, but the possible presence of Swift in the audience. Even if she’s a no-show, any rumor of her attendance is likely to bring out droves of Swifties, so marketing to this fanbase is kind of a no-brainer. The items themselves are fairly typical NFL stadium foods: quesadillas and loaded waffle fries. What makes them Swiftian, however, is the fact that they’ve been given cutesy names that tie in with a few of her songs.
One of the items that will be offered for sale at the Bills-Chiefs game is called Bad Blood waffle fries. The moniker, of course, refers to the Swift song of the same name minus the “waffle fries” part, as the song contains no reference to food (it’s thought to be a diss track about Katy Perry). What you get if you order this item is a fairly massive serving of fries in a cardboard boat 24 inches long with toppings meant as a nod to the teams’ respective cities: blue cheese for Buffalo (because this topping, not ranch, is the dip of choice for the city’s signature Buffalo wings) and pulled pork for barbecue capital Kansas City. (As regional barbecue meats go, pulled pork is actually more of a Memphis-slash-Carolinas thing, but maybe the vendor couldn’t source KC burnt ends.)
