After Taylor Swift went viral in her Time Person of the Year interview recently for her savage response to all the “Dads, Brads and Chads” annoyed by her screen time during NFL games she attends, it was only a matter of time before the Dads, Brads, and Chads clapped back. Well now they have in a satirical fake commercial aired by the Fox Sports NFL crew during Sunday’s football coverage.
The video uses Taylor’s response to how she felt about all the camera cut-aways to her during games as the jumping off point. “I’m just there to support Travis,” Swift had said in the interview. “I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and p—–g off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
Cue the faux-serious commercial spoof, where a Kansas City family comprised of a Dad, with two sons — Brad and Chad — shows up in Travis Kelce jerseys to address Taylor Swift about the offending comment.
The dad, who introduces himself as Chad Bradson Sr., speaks to camera and laments, “Taylor Swift said in an interview she has no awareness she’s being seen too much during Chiefs games, pissing off dads, Brads and Chads.” He then continues, “Well, I’m a dad. And these are my sons, Chad and Brad.”
The ad is pretty funny up to that point, but then takes a slightly weird turn.
“Our mom went to a Taylor Swift concert six weeks ago and never came back,” the son named Brad Bradson explains. “That’s why, me, Chad and Dad are mad.”
The Dad then makes a plea to camera to his wife, Maddison Bradson. “Come back Maddison. Chad, Brad and Dad[…]are very sad.”
Even putting aside the off-putting idea of a wife going missing after a concert being a source of comedy, the creative team behind the spoof seemed to miss the mark on what was funny about Swift’s quote that sparked the viral reaction. When Swift called out the Dads, Brads, and Chads she was upsetting, she was calling out a certain self-serious type of football fan that brought to mind a male Karen.
Seeing a self-inflated jock dad complaining about all the stuff he and his sons were missing from their beloved Chiefs’ telecasts during all the Swift cut-aways would have been fertile grounds for sharp satire.
Instead, the ad appears to have mistakenly assumed that the rhyming nature of the names is what people found amusing from the Swift quote, and then beat that through-line into the ground.
Maybe the lesson that the Fox Sports team really needs to absorb is that not many people who get into a beef with Taylor Swift, satiric or not, tend to win that stand-off. Next time, maybe consider letting Swift script a Dads, Brads and Chads commercial herself — then it’s sure to be a hit.
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