I heard there was a Taylor Swift mural being painted in Chicago, so I spent my lunch break on a quest to see it, as any Swiftie would do. (If you type in 33 W. Grand Ave. into Google Maps, you’ll find it easily, by the way.)
When I got there I found a group of Swifties waiting along the sidewalk, taking photos and speculating about what it could all mean. Passersby wondered why people would be so interested in a mural of a QR code.
A green scissor lift blocked most of the mural as they worked. It appeared they were putting the finishing touches on it.
The mural itself has the text:
TAYLOR SWIFT
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
There’s overlapping text consisting of 13s, ttpd in both uppercase and lowercase, and the center is a QR code. People were saying it directed them to a YouTube Short:
I overheard a photographer asking the painters what it would link to, and they said they could not say. Rumors swirled that they signed NDAs.
I was only there for a short while, so when I left the painters had gone to lunch and needed to finish a small portion of the mural at the bottom. It looked like they had stenciled the words YouTube Shorts with the logo. It was unclear when the code would be activated to go to another destination.
What does it all mean?
Marette Flora is the founder of Floradise blog and personalized gift shop. Marette is a passionate storyteller and creator. She attended the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and obtained a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication.
She is passionate about creating helpful and meaningful things.