We Loved Dolly for Staying Neutral. So Why Are We Mad at Ed?

Is it possible to keep politics out of your personal brand in an ever-divided world? Here are the three rules I use before I weigh in on anything, and why I think Ed Sheeran will be just fine.

Unless you’ve been checked out this last week, you’ve probably heard about the Ed Sheeran and Macklemore controversy.

Here’s the irony. Just a few weeks ago, the whole world came together around what seemed like the last unifying figure on Earth: Dolly Parton. And much of what we praised about her was that she never let politics hijack her brand. She remained radically neutral in an ever-divided world. In that sense, she was perhaps one of the last people with universal likability.

Then the Macklemore controversy erupted.

And Ed Sheeran, in my view, attempted the very same kind of neutrality. Look at the standard he set. He actually tried to embody the principle so many people say they want from entertainers: don’t make your concerts a political forum.

However, he seems to be losing anyway. So I’m not sure what he did wrong, except that he was put in a no-win situation.

That being said, if he stays committed to neutrality as his own position, I think he’ll weather this storm just fine. Everyone is positioning right now, and his tour is being cast as “falling apart around him.” But he’s proven time and time again that he can command a stadium with just him, a guitar, and a looping pedal. His tour will still do just fine. My money’s on Ed Sheeran to ride this out. I’m going to go see Guns N’ Roses tonight. I don’t even know who the opening acts are.

But what lessons can we learn for our own personal brands? Is it even possible to remain neutral in an ever-divided world? Is neutrality its own position? Do we have to weigh in on everything? That’s what I’m thinking through this morning.

Ingredients and Flavors

When I go deep into my Market Like a Rockstar framework and help people define their personal brand, the big idea I teach is ingredients and flavors, a principle I first learned from Benj Miller at Syrup.

A brand should have around three to four ingredients: the things it talks about. For a personal brand, I recommend your business plus two to three other topics. That’s it. If you just talk shop, you don’t feel human. If you talk about everything, you dilute your credibility. For example, I’ll weigh in on music, marketing, navigating AI, and faith-driven leadership. But that’s it. (This topic falls under music for me.) I have other interests: UGA football, fitness, food, Wes Anderson films, and politics. I just don’t talk about them online. They’re not part of my brand ingredients.

But beyond ingredients, there are flavors. Think about how differently chicken tastes at an Indian restaurant versus a barbecue joint versus a Mexican restaurant. The flavor dictates how things feel. Ingredients and flavors together make a good meal, and the best meals have a limited number of ingredients and intentional flavors. I weigh every piece of content against one question: how will this make people feel? If it’s not aspirational, I save it as a draft.

So I encourage people to decide: are politics going to be one of your ingredients? And how are you trying to make people feel? There isn’t a wrong answer. It’s okay to say yes. Just know that you’ve immediately limited your potential customer pool by 50%.

When I present the ingredients-and-flavors metaphor, most people tell me they don’t want politics to be one of their brand ingredients. And when they think about it, they want their flavor to be more encouragement than outrage. So they commit to not making politics their thing.

Then the next thing happens in the world, and we feel the magnetic pull to weigh in. We want to be a part of the conversation. We’re passionate, and we want others to know that we care.

When that happens, what should guide us? These are the three rules I’ve come up with for myself whenever I’m tempted to wade into the murky waters of politics.

Rule 1: Send It to the Sleep Committee

This is a term I borrowed from a personal mentor, Glen Jackson. Never send any piece of content without first giving it a solid eight hours of sleep. You do not have to weigh in right away. And often, a good night’s sleep reveals that your take wasn’t really needed after all.

Rule 2: Understand You Won’t Change Anyone’s Mind

I see this all the time on social media: people earnestly expressing their opinions, expecting to win a debate. What I’ve never seen is a comment that says, “You know what, I’ve never thought about it that way before. You’ve changed my mind.” Social media is a horrible medium to change people’s minds. The algorithms are built on outrage.

People are so dug into their positions that social media is just a bad place to move the needle on someone else’s opinion. Posting to sway people to one side or the other has little effect, and it can be alienating when people are making the two decisions that matter most about you and your brand: Do I trust them? Do I like them?

In a perfect world, people would say, “Even if I don’t agree with their take on this, I like them anyway.” That’s not the world we live in. So be cautious about wading in on anything. Ed Sheeran aside, you’ll usually be fine staying on the sidelines.

Rule 3: The Bono Rule

If I’ve passed rule one and slept on it, and I know my expression won’t change anyone’s mind, but it’s a matter of moral conscience and I feel I need to weigh in, then I always apply what I call the Bono rule.

I met Bono in 2000 and asked him how he got someone as far right as Strom Thurmond, the most conservative U.S. senator at the time, and Bernie Sanders to both support his cause. He told me, in classic Bono fashion: “The goal is elevation. I always try to elevate the conversation to right versus wrong instead of right versus left.”

To me, that means always striving to find common ground where people can come together rather than divide them. Period. I actually think that this is still possible in this situation.

Ed Will Be Fine

I don’t think Ed Sheeran will suffer lasting brand damage from his effort to remain neutral on this issue. A few folks will feign outrage at his stance in the short term, but I believe he’s chosen the best path.

But I have questions. What’s your take? Do you think Ed dropped the ball? Will he suffer long-term consequences, or is this just a blip on the radar? Are politics part of your personal brand? Does an artist have an obligation to weigh in on every issue of the day, or are they allowed to let the music speak for itself? Am I missing it?

Dolly showed the path. Will we let Ed walk it?

Ingredients and flavors is one of the core ideas in Market Like a Rockstar, and a framework I walk teams through in my keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions. Learn more at taianderson.live/keynotes.

Originally published on LinkedIn, September 19, 2026.