While seemingly everyone from fast food chains to prominent Aussie musicians like The Preatures and Flight Facilities has had something to say about the recent controversy surrounding a social media campaign to get Taylor Swift into Triple J’s annual Hottest 100 countdown, one important stakeholder has remained largely silent – Triple J.
When reached for comment by Tone Deaf last week, a representative for the youth network did not have much to add, saying, “We don’t comment on voting campaigns whilst Hottest 100 voting is open. It draws attention to them and may influence the results of the poll.”
Now, a leaked internal email from Triple J obtained by BuzzFeed, who first launched the campaign, has detailed the company line on the matter. The email appears to come from station manager Chris Scaddan and advises employees not to make any comments about the Swift campaign to the media or family and friends.
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“Just a reminder, we’re not commenting on the Taylor Swift campaign. That means you’re not commenting if you get hit up directly. To media, friends, family… Let us know if media are hassling you though. We’ll get to them eventually,” writes Scaddan. “Don’t worry… it will all become clear when we get to the countdown next Monday. (That was not a comment).”
However, it’s worth noting that despite Scaddan’s email to the Triple J staff, the station manager reportedly told News Corp last week that the Swift action is completely within the rules of the annual poll, saying, “People are welcome to add songs manually to their voting shortlist and those votes count exactly the same as anything voted from the Triple J list.”
The campaign has been fraught with controversy since it launched, with many questioning whether Swift can place in a poll operated by a station on which she’s never been played. However, according to former presenter Angela Catterns, if Swift ever had a chance, they may have now been snuffed out thanks to KFC.
“You probably know that there was a push to get a Taylor Swift song in [the Hottest 100],” Catterns told ABC panel program The Drum, during an appearance to promote the station’s 40th anniversary. According to Catterns, Swift “has now been disqualified because a fast food chain became involved in the whole process”.
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Catterns did not specify which fast food chain had become involved, though many assumed it was KFC after the company posted a photo of Swift to their official Facebook page and offered users who commented with their favourite Swift track the chance to win a KFC voucher, allegedly a violation of the Hottest 100 rules.
The company has since issued an apology for potentially jeopardising the campaign writing, “We know many of our fans are music lovers and our recent post has caused a bit of a stir so to avoid any more confusion we have taken it down.”
“The post simply asked our fans to tell us what their favourite Taylor Swift song was for the opportunity to win a voucher and we were not incentivising people to vote for her in the Hottest 100,” they add. According to the voting rules, the station “reserves the right to remove artists from the list who have benefited from competitions… that incentivise fans to vote for them”.
