Welcome to your weekly shot of High Spirits! This week’s issue poses more questions than answers.
Celebrity driven booze brands are now so common they’re a familiar punchline. A few of them are pretty good and several have been huge financial successes, but are any of them really necessary? Are any of them solving a customer pain point?
“I love to sip whiskey but I just wish it was sonically enhanced using Black NoiseTM by rock band Metallica.”
It’s easy to poke fun but I also have to respect that value is in the eye of the beholder and people are buying celeb booze. I may think Metallica’s Blackened whiskey is silly, but the market doesn’t. And what the market thinks is far more important than what any one of us thinks, myself included.
To the degree that celebrities influence culture in America and worldwide, it’s interesting to me that so many of them still choose to hawk hooch. Alcohol is becoming less cool by the minute and celebs are considered a driving force in what is cool, pushing culture forward. Is it just that adult non-alc early adopters (i.e. you, reader) are so far ahead of the trend curve that even celebs haven’t yet caught up?
Most of today’s celebrities prioritize maintaining and improving their fitness, health and wellness. To that end, at almost the same rapid rate at which new celeb booze brands launch, celebs themselves are announcing that they’ve gone sober. So it’s interesting when athletes and performers at the tops of their games (and, I assume, focused on staying there) push ethanol drinks that do nothing to support those health and wellness goals.
Here at Dry Atlas and Spirited Away, we’re also seeing our share of celebrity-driven non-alc brands, including:
- Luann DeLesseps’ Fose Rose
- Bella Hadid’s Kin Euphorics
- Katy Perry’s De Soi
- Blake Lively’s Betty Buzz
- RuPaul’s House of Love alc & non-alc cocktails
- NFL player JJ Watt’s investment in Athletic Brewing
- Constance Jablonski’s French Bloom
Does celebrity involvement make non-alc brands more appealing?
On one hand, early adopters of adult non-alc are the ones who are perfectly happy to buck the status quo without waiting for anyone’s permission. We don’t need celebs to tell us it’s ok to circumvent alcohol’s still-pervasive hold on culture and society.
On the other hand, we all have people we admire. Those people’s opinions matter to us and play a role in shaping our behaviors (even if we don’t fully realize it). And there is a very large market of people who are influenced by Dwayne Johnson, Kate Hudson, LeBron James, et al. To the degree that celebs are role models for millions worldwide, it’s exciting that some like Hadid, Lively, RuPaul, et al. are now inviting their fans to try better bevs.
What do you think celebrities’ role is in the post alc movement? Let us know on TikTok, Instagram & Twitter!
