Examining rebrands through the lens of Taylor Swift & Harry Potter

ICYMI, you can now revisit our Taylor Swift x Harry Potter episode.

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This week’s episode: Happee Birthdae Harry - Swiftie Potterheads Unite

In honor of Harry Potter’s birthday (which was July 31st), we decided to celebrate with a repeat of our favorite Harry Potter Holiday Special episode!? This week, Swifties and Potterheads unite as we discuss the crossovers between Harry Potter and Taylor Swift’s lyrics. Jenn imagines “Look What You Made Me Do” as Snape’s song to Voldermort. Jodi makes the case that “Lover” perfectly captures Lavender Brown’s feelings toward Ron. And Maansi envisions “You’re On Your Own Kid” as an anthem about Harry Potter’s arc throughout the entire series. Whether you’re a fan of the books, the movies, or both, we fully dork out on this episode. Join us!

🎧 Listen above and ⬇️ scroll below to read Maansi’s extra credit about how Taylor Swift and Harry Potter are brands that keep evolving.

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📜 This Week’s Extra Credit by Maansi

We often make Harry Potter references in our conversations because it was such a core part of our formative years (it’s a dead giveaway that we’re millennials). Sometimes I get sucked into the depths of memory lane and think about just how massive the Harry Potter phenomenon really was and it’s hard to describe. The only thing I can really compare it to is the way previous generations would talk about Michael Jackson, OR (to bring it back to today) the way Taylor Swift and news of her Eras Tour was sometimes felt like it was everywhere and all consuming over the last few years. Much smaller scale than HP, but close.

So as news of a Harry Potter reboot, this time made by HBO has been making its way onto everyone’s newsfeeds, I have to ask the question: is this Harry Potter - HBO’s version? What will it bring? How will it be different? Am I also going through a rebrand? What is my version of whatever I am?

Taylor Swift’s move to release Taylor’s Versions of her albums came as a direct result of the sale of her entire music catalog. But while she was recording anyway, she took the opportunity to give her albums a completely new look and feel and transform them from being standalone pieces into individual parts of a greater story, her Eras. Essentially, she used the recordings as an opportunity to rebrand each of her albums.

While some of Taylor’s Versions stayed closer to the original, others really strayed and took on a personality of their own. Red TV leaned more heavily into Fall than the original, which had more ringmaster vibes. 1989 TV leaned into the quiet, beachier side of New York, as opposed to the bustling metropolitan version.

And so, as some of the enthusiasm around Harry Potter has become more muted in recent years due to the author’s controversial comments on Trans rights, there’s clearly a desire to reboot and reignite the magic. Can the cash cow that HP once was for Warner Brothers be brought back to life?

As someone who was a fan of the wizarding world before it became a theme park, someone who was a fan of the literature, not the franchise, I’ve been long disappointed by the original films and waiting for a streaming service like HBO to do justice to the books. I want to be excited about the upcoming series, but many HP fans will appreciate that it is complicated. This is an opportunity for them to rebrand — give the series a new look and feel, make it feel more authentic, less caricature like the original movies, and perhaps more relatable to the present day. The Harry Potter series was always deeply political, how will HBO tell this story — will they lean into the political undertones, or will they shy away to avoid further controversy? Will they try to lean into the nostalgia to attempt to rekindle the magic, or will they carve out a path that cements this new version as the new preferred standard? For example, there were so many versions of JRR Tolkien for the past several decades (including one that featured The Beatles), but the Peter Jackson version of the stories became the one that seemed to do the books the most justice.

Rebrands have the power to rebuild connections that may fade away over time with newer generations. They give an opportunity to bring a brand forward into the present day and establish a home in the cultural context of a time that is different from the time that they were first introduced in. It’s an essential part of building a generational brand. I grew up with Cinderella’s castle at the heart of Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Rumors have it that my daughter will grow up with Elsa’s castle at the heart of it. I grew up with a version of the Harry Potter movies that was plot-driven, glossed over the nuance, and now feels somewhat icky to watch given my differing views from the people who profit from it. Time will tell, but my hope is that my daughter can grow up with a version that teaches society the same kinds of important lessons my generation learned from the books. I grew up with a version of Taylor’s music that was raw, and bold, where each album stood out from the rest. I was lucky enough to witness a version where they pieces all fit together to tell a greater story — that success takes time, work, dedication. That there are ups and downs, but every step you take takes you closer to your true power.

What I learn from all this is that it’s okay, and in fact necessary, to keep reinventing yourself. That it’s okay if the newer version of you is different from the version of you that’s gotten you this far. Even our own brands need updating to bring us forward into the present. In my own life, this decade of my life has brought major changes — a child, new jobs, new friends. It gives me some confidence and reassurance that it’s okay that whatever I am evolving into is something different, and probably, something even better.