Equality for me, but not for thee
By Marin Ralstin, November 17 2025—
Taylor Swift’s use of AI to generate promotional content for her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, casts a shadow of hypocrisy on her years of advocacy for fair compensation.
On Oct. 4, hot off the release of Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, orange QR codes began appearing on billboards in twelve cities all around the world. It appeared as though Swift was sending her fans, myself included, on yet another “easter egg hunt,” so to speak. Swift is known among fans for leaving “easter eggs” — clues to future song lyrics, album titles, themes, colour schemes and musical “eras,” among other things — across her music videos, social media accounts and basically anything else she touches. Her scavenger hunts even get down to the clothes she wears and the gestures she makes with her hands (recall the “peace sign” Swift made at the VMAs as she announced the release of The Tortured Poets Department, which turned out to be an easter egg for the double-album drop to come).
In a twist that surprised no one, Swifties around the world raced to unlock each of the QR codes, certain that, whatever they led to, the easter eggs contained within them wouldn’t disappoint. Fans quickly discovered an array of short videos which all contained allusions to the content of the album.
Then they noticed something strange.
In one video, the buttons of a treadmill feature inexplicably faulty lettering. The word “stop” is spelt in a slanted, bubbly fashion for no apparent reason.
In another, a bartop is tastefully decorated with lamps spaced evenly across its left side, with only one lamp on the right, where the bartop meets the wall. In another frame of the same video, the right wall — once covered in glassware and bottles of various alcohols — disappears and a roundabout countertop takes its place, this time with three lamps atop it. The camera pans towards a clothing rack. As it zooms in on the inner tag of a jacket, one of the hangers behind it disappears, only to reappear suddenly as the camera zooms back out. The hand of a faceless bartender appears to flatten into just a palm as it lays a napkin on the counter, then grows fingers again as it sets an Old Fashioned atop it.
In a more bizarre instance, one video of a sprawling garden features a squirrel that mysteriously loses one of its legs as it scampers across a branch, only to spontaneously become four-legged again milliseconds later.
The above examples are just a fraction of the glaring inconsistencies fans noticed in the videos, which go on to include an obviously faulty recreation of Swift’s Eras Tour Acoustic Piano, lighting which doesn’t match its source, shadows which don’t match the objects casting them and more words which appear to be written by someone, or something, that doesn’t understand the meaning of letters.
You might be getting the picture by now.
These videos, which have since been removed from Swift’s social media accounts altogether, share a common thread of bizarre, inexplicable mistakes. Even if a graphic designer were to make these errors, they would immediately be ferreted out during the editing process. Speculation quickly led internet sleuths and Swifties alike to conclude that these videos were all the product of an AI program, and that the inexplicable inconsistencies featured within them were the product of AI “hallucinations.” Their suspicions were confirmed when the bar video posted on Swift’s YouTube account was flagged for having digitally manufactured content.
Swift’s use of AI for this marketing campaign is hypocrisy at its finest. Many fans were quick to point out that Swift has decried the use of AI over the years when it has negatively affected her, such as President Donald Trump’s use of AI imagery to legitimize the false claim that Swift was endorsing him for the presidency, as well as when Swift herself became the victim of deepfake pornography.
Taylor Swift has never hesitated to call out injustice when it affects her. She’s spent the better half of a decade championing the rights of artists to own their own work, to receive credit where credit is due and to be compensated generously for their contributions. But this AI campaign is a complete reversal of Swift’s years of advocacy.
By opting to use AI to design her promotional materials in lieu of human artists, Swift has made it clear that she only cares about equality, women’s rights and worker’s rights when those issues affect her directly. When it’s more convenient for her to use AI to churn out garbled, poor-quality promotional materials rather than hiring and fairly compensating a human being — despite her approximately $2 billion net worth — it would appear as though Taylor Swift no longer cares about the rights of artists. It would appear as though she would rather solicit the services of a program which rips off the work of human beings while giving them no credit, only to produce poor quality work rife with glitches and inconsistencies.
The use of AI for this promotional campaign also does not bode well for Swift in the wake of years of controversy for her consistent neglect of the climate through her near-constant use of her private jet. The amount of energy expended designing a 30-second AI video is equivalent to leaving a standard kitchen oven running for 67 hours. Granted, this is nothing compared to the millions of tonnes of carbon Swift releases into the air year after year with her incessant use of private jets, but this promotional campaign is just the latest in a long line of careless, self-centred actions in the new “Era” of Taylor Swift.
Despite the wave of controversy, self-identified “Swifties” are rushing to the defence of their beloved billionaire. Swifties pity and infantilize Swift more than anyone else while simultaneously hailing her as a genius of songwriting and a gift to the English language.
As a self-identified Swiftie for more than a decade, I’ll say this: pick a lane.
Either Taylor Swift is a mastermind who plans everything she does down to the letter years in advance, or she is a blissfully unaware child incapable of taking accountability for her mistakes. But the answer is clear: Swift is not a child, and she is not clueless.
Indeed, Swift is nothing if not a brilliant businesswoman.
This marketing campaign was no accident. It was a deliberate effort made by one of the world’s most famous billionaires to pad her pockets while delivering an inferior product. Gone are the Miss Americana days of being “on the right side of history.” This latest album drop has made it clear that the “right side of history” for Taylor Swift is whatever benefits her most, even at the expense of her fans, her work and anything else that gets in her way.
One thing is certain: Swift’s latest actions have this fan hanging her scarf and walking away. At least, until I hear “cardigan” again. Then, maybe I’ll reconsider.