Although Joanne was certified platinum in the US and charted at no. 2 in Australia, Lady Gaga’s detractors branded the album a flop. Little Monsters haven’t forgotten, and they have a new plan for “Stupid Love” this time around.
Gaga stans have started sharing fake promotions on social media to encourage people to stream “Stupid Love”, usually in the form of photoshopped Spotify screenshots. The posts claim that people who stream the track are entitled to a free meal at Macca’s and even an iPhone.
In case it needs to be said: no, you will absolutely not get a free iPhone for listing to a song on Spotify. Lady Gaga is not that generous.
https://twitter.com/nickispussylipz/status/1233750028864442368
https://twitter.com/angelperrys/status/1233778885705097223
ANOTHER deal?!!! I can’t believe you can get a free McDonald’s meal of your choice if you stream #StupidLove by Lady Gaga on Spotify/Apple Music omg #GagaxMcdonalds 🍟 pic.twitter.com/KAfZStWtYr
— lab (@LabOfMonsters) February 29, 2020
One user even photoshopped a fake billboard in New York City’s Times Square promising AirPods for people who streamed the track on Apple Music. Little Monsters flooded the replies with photos of their AirPods saying “thank you Lady Gaga” and “got mine in the mail today.”
It appears that Lady Gaga’s deal with Apple includes a mass AirPods Pro giveaway to people who stream ‘Stupid Love’ on Apple Music! #StupidLove pic.twitter.com/qhn96B1fxT
— nico 🍒 (@fkanico) February 29, 2020
The scheme has slightly more humble beginnings, however. On the day the song dropped, Gaga stans were using free Starbucks lure potential listeners. While these posts did spread on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even TikTok, they didn’t receive as much attention as these more recent iterations.
Starbucks were forced to confirm on Twitter that this “is not an official Starbucks offer.”
https://twitter.com/lorde70756583/status/1233480749015355398
WOAH! We just got free Starbucks after streaming #StupidLove! To avail, just keep replaying #StupidLove by Lady Gaga on Spotify until the promo code appears!! pic.twitter.com/o6g7WRvnzh
— aidan…the elusive chanteuse (@boys_the_cram) February 29, 2020
https://twitter.com/wheresmywigg/status/1233525765825757185
It’s not the first time Gaga stans have flexed their social media prowess to encourage streams. “Buy Applause on iTunes” and “buy applesauce on iTunes” are both still burned into the memory of anyone who used Twitter or Tumblr back in 2013. Unfortunately for them, the subsequent album, Artpop, did not perform as well in the charts as the singer’s previous albums.
At least this time around, the plan is more believable than when Swifties pretended to be soccer mums in order to flood radio stations with song requests.
“Stupid Love” is a gooddamn bop. It’s 2009 all over again and Lady Gaga is BACK. If a few people need to be mislead to make this point clear, then so be it.
