Orange you glad your brand found a way in?”
When Taylor Swift unveiled her upcoming 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, she ignited a marketing wildfire. ❤️🔥Brands far outside the music space saw a parade forming and sprinted to the front, pushing over the clowns, high school marching band and Shriners to douse their logos and social feeds in the album’s signature orange glitter.
In true marketing mastermind fashion, Taylor has proven – again – that if you create a cultural moment, clever brands will hitch a ride and do some of the promotion for you.
Glitter Economics: Hobby Lobby Stock Is Up
Every Taylor album has a hero color, and The Life of a Showgirl continues that signature move, complete with an orange glitter and mint-green aesthetic. Marketers know the old adage: find a parade and get in front of it. (I tried that years ago with the infamous Billy Ripken baseball card, but the response wasn’t what I’d hoped; Orioles orange is apparently not the same as Taylor Swift orange).
From fast-food chains to horror movie characters, here are some standout examples who moved swiftly.
- Pillsbury Doughboy – You know a trend is big when the Doughboy wants in. He rebranded as a “Pillsbury Showboy” (that said, the CMO missed a layup by not calling it “Life of a Doughboy,” but, hey, close enough).
- Ghostface – Perhaps the most unusual Swiftie of all, Ghostface from the Scream movies made a cameo on social media. The horror icon’s official account posted an image on an orange backdrop with the caption “we like orange,” proof that literally any brand or masked murderer can find relevance in a Taylor Swift album launch. RIP Casey Becker.
- Olive Garden – When you’re here, you’re family (which explains why we never took my handsy uncle), Olive Garden served up an official album cover prediction featuring its famous breadsticks dressed as Vegas showgirls. Caption: “She’s giving carbs, couture, and confetti.” Olive Garden nailed the recipe for social media: be timely, be fun or funny, on-theme and on brand.
- Skyline Chili – Spoofed Taylor’s teaser image, swapping the orange padlock for orange Cheese Coneys. Caption: “Cause darling, we’re a Coney dressed like a daydream.” A 1989-era lyric meets chili dog cosplay. Small points deduction for referencing an old era while a new one launches, even relish is like “that’s not gonna be for everyone.”
- FedEx – Some brands had an easier pivot — they were already orange. FedEx posted, “You know what looks good with orange?” and made friendship bracelet videos. Meanwhile UPS is still doubling down on brown asking “What can brown do for you?” when they could have said “brown is considered a dark shade of orange,” but it is on brand for UPS to not deliver.
And the list went on: X (the artist formerly known as Twitter) glitterized its logo, Netflix dropped memes, McDonald’s, Duolingo, Buffalo Wild Wings, Threads, Dunkin, United Airlines all firing up Canva to spray-paint themselves more orange than 47.
Reminder: you need to have fun with the moment, stay true to your brand, and do it before the moment passes. If you’re just now posting, I’mma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the – wait…
Orange Is the New Buzz
Taylor Swift’s cultural clout is a marketer’s dream. When a single album teaser can send billion-dollar companies into a coordinated frenzy, you’re watching a masterclass in buzz creation. A simple color can unite brands and fans with a force just as potent as any ad budget.
Taylor is now the queen of orange and she reminds us that the smartest branding is often just a hue away from making history. Oompa loompa doompety doo, I have the perfect marketing for you, oompa loompa doopety dee, if you are wise, you will listen to T.
-Phil Becker