Imagine a family-friendly brand with the initials “TS” that floods the market with bespoke merchandise. Are you thinking of “Toy Story” or Taylor Swift?
For now, at least, they’re one and the same. Swift confirmed long-simmering speculation this week when she announced her new single for the “Toy Story 5” soundtrack, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” will be released on Friday.
“You knew it! My new original song ‘I Knew It, I Knew You’ for Disney and @Pixar’s @toystory 5 will be yours on June 5th,” Swift wrote on social media, making a nod to her most devoted detectives, who had collected Easter Eggs from across the internet that hinted at the collaboration for months.
“I’ve always dreamed of getting to write for these characters who I’ve adored since I was a 5-year-old kid watching the first Toy Story movie,” Swift continued. “I fell instantly in love with Toy Story 5 when I was lucky enough to see it in its early stages, and I wrote this song as soon as I got home from the screening. Sometimes you just know, right?”
Swift’s admiration for “Toy Story” makes sense not just because she’s a millennial who grew up with the classic movie franchise. The devotion she inspires from her own fan base has a lot in common with that of Woody, Buzz, and the gang. After all, few have proved better at turning sentimental affection into a money-making empire than Pixar.
Swifties inadvertently became Pixar’s promo team — and everybody won
It all started in April with paparazzi shots of Swift wearing the “Toy Story” color palette: a blue-and-white dress, yellow bag, and red shoes. It could have easily been a coincidence. But when billboards emblazoned with “TS,” set against the franchise’s iconic cloud background appeared, the Swiftie cipher machine kicked into high gear.
Soon after, a subtle change was made to the “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” cover art on streaming services, swapping the seagulls above Swift’s head for clouds, and Pixar shared a video of “Toy Story” cowgirl Jessie dancing, captioned with paraphrased lyrics from Swift’s hit “Shake It Off” (“She’s making those moves up as she goes!”).
Finally, a countdown appeared on Swift’s website. When it expired, the site refreshed to reveal three “collector’s edition” CDs of the “Toy Story 5” soundtrack, each featuring a different version of Swift’s new song: standard, acoustic, and piano.
It’s a strategy ripped straight from Swift’s favorite promotional playbook. She’s a master at manufacturing a hoopla, whipping her loyal fans into a frenzy while barely lifting a finger, then channeling that anticipation — the realization that, “She was teasing new music! I was right!” — to sell more merchandise.
Naturally, the CDs were only available for two days on Swift’s website, or while supplies lasted. All three sold out within hours.
Swift’s ‘Toy Story’ collaboration furthers her own career narrative
Only Swift could turn a massive franchise like “Toy Story” into her own personal promo vehicle.
“I Knew It, I Knew You” is already being touted as a triumphant “return to country” for Swift, who launched her songwriting career as a teen in the Nashville country scene before pivoting to pop in her 20s. Not-so-coincidentally, “Toy Story 5” will hit theaters on June 19, which is the 20th anniversary of Swift’s debut single, “Tim McGraw.”
Fans are hoping that Swift will rerelease her self-titled debut album to mark its 20th anniversary later this year. Even though she took ownership of all her music last year, rendering the “Taylor’s Version” rerecording project moot, Swift also confirmed that “Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version)” exists, and said she would consider releasing it “when the time is right.”
The original tracks on “Taylor Swift,” some written solely by Swift, were conceived back when she was a curly-haired tween grappling with all the classic growing pains: crushes, cliques, feeling like an outcast, dreaming of a bigger world. What better way to build hype for Swift’s walk down memory lane than by teaming up with “Toy Story,” a franchise that epitomizes childhood wonder, millennial nostalgia — and masterfully leverages both to make a profit?
Both Swift and ‘Toy Story’ expertly turn fans into consumers
Both Swift and the minds behind “Toy Story” endeared themselves to audiences through true creative genius — crafting sincere, moving, original works that appeal to a wide age range. Swift’s earliest releases, including 2006’s “Taylor Swift” and 2008’s “Fearless,” received widespread acclaim and ushered in a new era of confessional songwriting. Similarly, 1995’s “Toy Story” and 1999’s “Toy Story 2” were so successful that they changed how animated movies were made and how they were appraised by critics.
Monoculture is inextricably tied to consumerism, because it matters where people spend their money. Neither Swift nor the minds behind “Toy Story” relied on creative output alone; they built wildly popular brands over decades through commercial savvy. In short, both are very good at getting fans to buy stuff.
Swift’s volume of physical sales is unparalleled in the music industry. She uses every Billboard-approved tactic in the book to push vinyls and CDs, turning fans — of all ages, as long as they have money to burn or parents to persuade — into ravenous archivists and collectors. As one Swiftie in her 50s told me, “There’s something about Taylor, being her fan, that just makes me uncharacteristically acquisitive.”
Meanwhile, “Toy Story” is a series that literally revolves around physical products. The beloved characters, from Woody and Buzz to Jessie and Bullseye, are all the more appealing to kids because they exist in the real world, trapped in plastic boxes, begging to be freed and handled and played with and loved.
Together, Swift and “Toy Story” are the perfect storm of mass consumer appeal. It’s a wonder we haven’t already gotten “You’ve Got a Friend in Me (Taylor’s Version)” — but if there’s anything both brands have taught us, it’s that there’s always a chance it will end up on the soundtrack’s deluxe edition.
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