Words by Kate South

From feminist debates to fuzzy album variants, Starfreak investigates the rollout of Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album.

Sabrina Carpenter caused quite the controversy when she dropped the album cover for “Man’s Best Friend.” The cover sees Sabrina on her hands and knees, as an anonymous man grips her hair as if it were a lead. This visual, paired with the album’s title Man’s Best Friend, dehumanises her further through the canine comparison. Arguably, her marketing team pulled an absolute blinder with the provocative album art. There were two main arguments: was the image subversive or submissive? The internet was split down the middle, and many TikToks, Substack essays, and YouTube videos were created in response. The album was everywhere. Regardless of which side you took, it is undeniable that the cover expertly plays into the coy, carefully curated pin-up aesthetic that has become synonymous with her brand. Plus, she looks gorgeous. Perhaps the controversy was a small price to pay for the sheer amount of free publicity afforded to Man’s Best Friend.

Sabrina was part of the legendary 2024 Powerpuff Girls–esque trio, which also included Charli XCX and Chappell Roan. Several music outlets this year have been lamenting the lack of a definitive “song of the summer.” Once Sabrina’s new album drops, with few mainstream releases this summer to rival it, everyone will be talking about it. Carpenter has proven her ability to write excellent pop music with witty, intelligent lyrics and catchy hooks, and no doubt this next release will be no different. The Music Week also made the excellent point that Carpenter and her team are potentially not creating another era for this album, and if she does, it will likely be built after release day, which also allows fans to be a part of creating a vibe for the new era. Since our exchange, this has already started to occur with the announcement of the music video for “Tears,” which will be released the same day as the album.

This idea that Man’s Best Friend will develop into a more defined era after release also makes sense with Carpenter’s touring schedule. While the visual and sonic world of “Manchild” is not exactly a departure from her previous era, we must remember the Short ‘n’ Sweet Tour is still in full swing and will be until the final show on November 23rd. It will be interesting to see how she will handle the incorporation of tracks from Man’s Best Friend into her setlist for the remaining tour. Perhaps, like Lady Gaga’s debut album The Fame and the iconic follow-up The Fame Monster, the eras will share similarities and will be seen as a pair rather than two distinct projects. Considering the relative lack of marketing and world-building for this project, and the fact that this album is coming out before the Short ‘n’ Sweet era wraps up, I suspect that, at least for the time being, this will be the case.

The only downside of reducing Sabrina’s album rollout as a masterclass of digital marketing is that it takes the wind out of the sails for those defending the album cover. Seeing a woman on her hands and knees for a man and using it to carry an entire album campaign is “sex sells” at its most literal. However, I have faith in Sabrina, and I do not doubt that when the album drops this Friday, the subversion behind the imagery will become clearer, and it will probably be sarcastic. After all, we have essentially been given the set-up for a joke without the punchline, and if there’s one thing that Sabrina Carpenter has, it’s a brilliantly wicked sense of humour. Stay tuned, Sabrina’s next album is coming soon.

Over two months later, and only a matter of days before the album, what have been the highlights of the album rollout so far? Allow me to outline a brief timeline. “Manchild” shot to number one in the UK and USA after its release on June 5th, and Sabrina announced her album on 11th June with an Instagram post of the infamous album cover. Chaos ensues. The next day, her team projected her onto iconic landmarks across the globe, including London’s Big Ben. Over July, the alternate album covers and vinyl variants began to be released, including one which Sabrina Carpenter joked was “God approved” in response to the outcry. Another variant featured a fuzzy-textured back that you can pet, to accompany the photo of a dog wearing a “Man’s Best Friend” collar.

Localised fan interactions then became the marketing M.O. Starting on July 22nd, the tracklist was revealed one by one on blurry polaroids, which saw a handful of Sabrina’s L.A.-based fans pose with a golden Labrador puppy. Then, on August 13th, Carpenter invited twenty-six handpicked fans in Los Angeles to her studio to listen to the album, with subsequent listening parties being held in New York and London. It’s worth noting these exclusive listening events had a strict no-phones policy. Apart from the iconic “Manchild” line dance trend from the music video and the album discourse, there have been few successful moments related to the release, with no teasers or leaks of the unreleased songs.

“Manchild” remains the only single, and the buzz around the album has only ramped up very recently, as would be expected in the final countdown before release. This relative lack of marketing for the follow-up to Short ‘n’ Sweet, Carpenter’s most successful album to date, puzzled me personally. Given the previous album’s runaway success, you’d want to keep the momentum of the previous era going. So, I did the natural thing: I took to Substack, yelling into the void to see if anyone else had noticed, or if I simply hadn’t locked in enough to SabrinaTok. Sure enough, music commentator The Music Week replied to my quandary with some simple yet genius insight about the subtle marketing: “They just don’t need more.” The buzz from the album cover and the pure country-pop joy of “Manchild” are more than enough to carry the campaign.