PR Turmoil and Triumph Amid “The Eras Tour” Crisis

One brand’s trash is another brand’s treasure; or in this case, Ticketmaster’s “Eras Tour” PR crisis became other companies’ trove of newsjacking gold. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift and her fans were left with the scraps.

If you haven’t already heard, Swift’s upcoming “Eras Tour” caused an uproar among fans and the media. Those trying to buy seats for the 2023 show through Ticketmaster were met with an unresponsive site, long queues and high-priced tickets. Naturally, brands across social media were quick to take advantage of Ticketmaster’s mistakes. 

Crumbl Cookies, Netflix and the Tampa Bay Lightning were three notable companies that used the situation to promote their brands. Crumbl tweeted about the presale codes sent to Swift fans, saying, “Which cookie flavor do we have to release to get a Taylor Swift Ticketmaster email today,” ended by a sad face emoji. The post received 11,300 likes and 617 retweets; its other tweets usually have a few hundred likes and less than 100 retweets.

Netflix also newsjacked the story by quote-tweeting a post announcing the world’s population had hit 8 billion people with "and they're all waiting in a ticket queue right now."

Finally, the Tampa Bay Lightning tweeted, "Absolutely no one DM us rn, we're trying to get Taylor Swift tickets." The tweet garnered more than 6,000 likes, while its other tweets average around 100.

However, while companies like these were benefiting from the problem, Ticketmaster was amid a PR crisis.

Although Ticketmaster posted a statement to its website regarding the ticketing turmoil, it faced widespread criticism from consumers. One Twitter user uploaded a picture of seats being resold for more than $4,000 and said, "I’m really not seeing Taylor next year and I’m sad. Thanks Ticketmaster." Meanwhile, others skipped online disapproval but took swift action through a lawsuit. 

Ticketmaster also encountered political pressure, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reined in. Break them up.”

Then there’s Swift’s reaction to the situation.

Swift is no stranger to PR statements – if anything, she’s a seasoned professional. For example, in 2015, Swift called out Apple Music for not compensating artists during trial-period streams. In 2016, a manipulated leaked phone call between Swift and Kanye West, coined #phonegate, led Swift to respond, “I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative,” And in 2019, Swift spoke out against her old record label, which sold her masters without giving her a chance to buy it. 

This time around, Swift released a statement on her Instagram story that said, “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”

And it’s safe to say the experience caused a bear-like attack on Ticketmaster’s brand, too. 

Written by Jillian Rodriguez