The SHI Stadium scoreboard displayed a message to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce after they announced their engagement during the first half of the game between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the Ohio Bobcats at SHI Stadium on Aug. 28, 2025, in Piscataway, N.J. Ed Mulholland/Getty Images
When Taylor Swift got engaged to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce last month, New York-based chocolatier Jacques Torres saw an opportunity. The day after Swift revealed her engagement, Torres posted a meme on Instagram based on the singer’s now-viral engagement photo, in which Swift is seen clasping her fiancé’s face. In Torres’ versionhowever, Kelce’s body is labeled “Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies,” while Taylor is labeled “Me.” The message? The only thing more swoon-worthy than true love is a warm chocolate chip cookie.
“We couldn’t resist joining in on the excitement around Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce,” Torres told Observer. “It’s such a sweet moment, and sweets are what we do best. The post was all in good fun, and our fans loved it. For me, it’s always special to see how a little chocolate and a little humor can connect us to a cultural moment like this.”
That one Instagram post is an example of trend-jacking, where brands latch on to trending topics for visibility. It illustrates just how much Swift has become a cultural and economic powerhouse. Her milestones—whether it’s a new album drop, a tour announcement or even her engagement—don’t just trend; they become monoculture moments that fuel everything from internet clicks to retail commerce. Swift is no longer just a superstar. As she prepares for the release of The Life of a Showgirlher 12th studio album, she’s arguably become an economy unto herself.
“Taylor Swift is a person, but she is also a business,” said Cameron Tucker, an economic education analyst at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, during a webinar he hosted earlier this year on “What Taylor Swift Can Teach Us About Economics.”
Among the “Swiftonomic” insights Tucker shared: The California Center for Jobs and the Economy estimated that just six sold-out Los Angeles-area concerts in August 2023 during Swift’s Eras tour added $320 million to the county’s GDP and created 3,300 jobs. The U.S. Travel Association estimates that the entire Eras tour, which ran from March 2023 until December 2024, may have generated as much as $10 billion in economic impactincluding $2 billion in ticket salesmaking it the highest-grossing concert tour ever.
Swift’s upcoming album also showcases how she bends both culture and commerce to her will. Target stores across the U.S. are planning to stay open past midnight on Oct. 3 to sell the first copies of The Life of a Showgirl—a nod to the 1990s and 2000s record store culture, when fans would line up for coveted new releases. Roughly 500 Target locations will extend their hours, and fans will be handed tickets to control demand, limiting how many copies a shopper can purchase.
Swift is also taking The Life of a Showgirl to the big screen with Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirlan 89-minute film showing in thousands of theaters worldwide for one weekend only (Oct. 3–5). The film, which includes track-by-track commentary and lyric videos, has already generated $15 million in pre-sale tickets, with expectations that it will earn between $30 million and $50 million.
Swift’s ability to turn almost anything into a revenue-generating event is central to how She has built her career. Instead of relying on a traditional magazine cover or TV appearance to announce her new album, Swift revealed the project on New Heights, the podcast co-hosted by her fiancé and his brother, Jason Kelce. The August livestream of that episode drew 23 million views, with clips across TikTok, Instagram and X generating hundreds of millions more.
Similarly, brands jumped on the new album announcement. For instance, restaurant chain Olive Garden dressed one of its signature breadsticks as a “showgirl” in an Instagram post. Swift’s influence extends beyond traditional media and into all kinds of brand activations.
In short, Swift has graduated from being a celebrity to becoming a full-fledged economic force.
Forbes named her a billionaire in 2023, making her the first artist to reach that milestone solely through music sales. Her net worth has since climbed to an estimated $1.6 billion. The commercial impact of her empire continues to reverberate outward, from Target’s midnight openings to Instagram memes and even local economies getting a boost from her presence.
The media now treats any Swift headline as a spectacle, cutting across all beats. After her engagement news broke, for example, The New York Times analyzed her engagement ring; The Athletic discussed how it might affect the Chiefs’ season; and the Nieman Journalism Lab even joked that in SEO, the “S” could just as well stand for Swift.
That wide-ranging media coverage speaks to just how far Swift’s cultural reach extends. She has become more than just a superstar—she is now running her own economy, one in which brands, media and fans all eagerly participate.
“That’s what entertainment is, really,” Swift said during the New Heights episode. “Giving people something to escape, to sink their teeth into—like, we’re world-building, you know?”
