How Ryan Reynolds Got Taylor Swift's Approval for State Farm Moment
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Originally appeared on E! Online
What if I told you none of it was accidental, and that Ryan Reynolds' marketing agency Maximum Effort helped orchestrate that moment between Donna Kelce and Jake From State Farm?
And yes, Taylor Swift was clued in on the move.
"We kind of felt like this was her moment if you will," the insurance company's head of marketing Alyson Griffin told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Oct. 4, "and we just didn't want to jeopardize anything with her."
In case you missed it, Donna and Jake (whose real name is Kevin Miles) were seen watching her son Jason Kelce and the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles play against the Washington Commanders during the Oct. 1 broadcast of the game—giving fans flashbacks to when she was seen cheering on her son Travis Kelce with Taylor at the Kansas City Chiefs' game against the Chicago Bears the week before.
Taylor Swift Cheers on Travis Kelce at Kansas City Chiefs game
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Jake also tweeted a photo of him and Donna—noting he was in his red era while wearing his red and white State Farm colors—and even shared a video of him and Jason walking and talking together. The clip was similar to how Taylor and Travis (who've been sparking romance rumors after he attended one of her concerts and then later invited her to watch him play) were spotted chatting as they exited one of his games.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="et" dir="ltr">In my red era with Mama MaAuto <a href="https://t.co/AW0M3I0jlC">pic.twitter.com/AW0M3I0jlC</a></p>— Jake from State Farm (@JakeStateFarm) <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeStateFarm/status/1708546180987138525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Even Jason got in on the fun—posting a photo of Donna and Jake taking in the Eagles game as the State Farm spokesperson ate some chicken tenders, which Taylor also enjoyed during her outing with Donna (although Jake teased that "seemingly, they were out of ranch" at Lincoln Financial Field).
However, The Hollywood Reporter noted that both Maximum Effort and State Farm stressed that the purpose of Jake and Donna's interaction was not to make fun of Taylor but rather to lean into the buzz around her appearance at the Chiefs game. In fact, the outlet shared that Ryan—who along with wife Blake Lively is friends with Taylor—gave the Grammy winner's camp a heads-up about the initiative.
"Once we had a good degree of confidence that everyone got the joke, and that there would be no issue," George Dewey, Ryan's Maximum Effort cofounder, told THR, "We were all very happy to proceed."
Added Alyson, "[We were] confident that Taylor was aware, not upset, thought it was funny."
Ryan was among the many stars who joined Taylor at the Chiefs' game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 1, with Blake, Hugh Jackman, Sophie Turner, Sabrina Carpenter and Queer Eye's Antoni Porowski also attending.
And while Travis has expressed his excitement over Taylor coming to his games, he understands the situation is delicate and noted he plans to keep things more private.
"What's real is that it is my personal life, and I want to respect both of our lives," the tight end said on the Sept. 27 episode of his and Jason's podcast New Heights. "She's not in the media as much as I am doing this show every single week and having fun during the NFL season on other guys' shows."
As he later put it, "I'm enjoying life and I sure as hell enjoyed this weekend. So, everything moving forward, I think me talking about sports and saying 'alright nah' will have to be kinda where I keep it."
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