Did Coca-Cola cut ties with Taylor Swift after she endorsed Kamala Harris for president? No, that's not true: This comes from a social media post that's clearly marked as satire. Coca-Cola told Lead Stories it wasn't true, and it's not even clear the company still had any contractual ties to Swift when she made her political plug.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on September 14, 2024. It began:
Coca-Cola Ends Long-Term Partnership with Taylor Swift: 'We Don't Support Her Endorsement'
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Sep 19 14:21:51 2024 UTC)
The second line of the caption on Facebook reads:
This is Satire post
The first comment links to the source, an article published on the Esspots website on September 14, 2024 (archived here). The word "SATIRE" appears twice among the topic tags below the headline, as can be seen in the following screenshot:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Sep 19 15:44:20 2024 UTC)
Esspots' "About Us" page (archived here) calls its stories "fake news":
Welcome to the US page of Esspots (A Subsidiary of SpaceXMania.com specializing in Satire and Parody News), your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States of America. Our team of writers and editors is dedicated to bringing you the latest and greatest in fake news and absurdity, all with a healthy dose of humor and satire.
Some social media users posted Esspots' claim about Swift word-for-word without noting its satirical intent (archived here).
Swift endorsed Harris for president on her Instagram page on September 10, 2024 (archived here). Esspots' fake article quoted a Coca-Cola media representative reacting to the news, saying:
We've enjoyed a long and successful relationship with Taylor Swift, but we cannot in good conscience continue to partner with her after her recent political endorsements.
In an e-mail to Lead Stories on September 19, 2024, a representative for Coca-Cola said:
There is no truth to these claims.
Swift had a promotional deal with Coca-Cola in 2013 and starred in a television ad for Diet Coke in 2014, according to two separate statements on the company's website (archived here and here). A keyword search by Lead Stories on September 19, 2024, turned up no clear evidence that the singer and Coke continued their partnership to 2024 (archived here).
Coca-Cola's representative said there was no public information on whether the company maintains a contractual relationship with Swift. A search of the company's website found no mention of the singer after October 2014 (archived here).
At the time this was written, PolitiFact had reviewed the same claim.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding Taylor Swift can be found here. Lead Stories' debunks of claims about the 2024 election can be read here.
