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\u201cFor me, it all started with seeing someone as high-profile as Bella get involved,\u201d says Victoria Watters, cofounder of Dry Atlas<\/a>, a media and insights company focused on the nonalcoholic beverage category. Watters had long been familiar with Kin Euphorics<\/a> when Bella Hadid joined the alcohol-alternative brand in 2021; Kin was a mainstay on the shelves at Spirited Away<\/a>, the N\/A bottle shop in Manhattan founded by her husband, Douglas. <\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n For Watters, Hadid\u2019s involvement was \u201ca big validator of the space quite early on in its popularity cycle.\u201d She\u2019s been tracking the trend ever since.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Fast-forward a few years, and there are now at least a dozen or two celebrity beverage brands and endorsements that are decidedly alcohol-free. We have <\/span>De Soi<\/span><\/a> from Katy Perry, Blake Lively\u2019s <\/span>Betty Buzz<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Almave<\/span><\/a> from F1 star Lewis Hamilton; nonalcoholic bubbly from the likes of model Constance Jablonski (<\/span>French Bloom<\/span><\/a>) and Kylie Minogue\u2019s <\/span>eponymous wine brand<\/span><\/a>. N\/A beer company <\/span>Athletic Brewing<\/span><\/a> counts many athletes among its investors and has a fitting brand ambassador in former NFL player JJ Watt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time that famous people have crept into the beverage industry. Since the 2010s, celebrities from Michael Jordan (Cincoro) to Kendall Jenner (818) to Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson (Teremana) have launched tequila brands seemingly daily, a trend that\u2019s drawn both scrutiny and protest. But is celebrity N\/A simply a new version of an old cash grab? Or is there more to it?<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n \u201cCelebrity-backed brands have an advantage because they start with an already engaged customer base,\u201d says Chris Budzik, a senior market analyst at <\/span>IWSR<\/span><\/a>, a data and analytics company focused on the global beverage industry. While some inevitably flop or fade into obscurity, others\u2014like Skims or Fenty Beauty\u2014become empires of their own. Given that the N\/A category is <\/span>expected to grow<\/span><\/a> by billions of dollars in the next few years, with this expansion driven by social media\u2013savvy millennials and zoomers, is celebrity interest really so surprising? In Budzik\u2019s view, \u201cEndorsing a no-alc product is lucrative, low-hanging fruit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Drinks writer and <\/span>Prix Fixe<\/span><\/a> founder Oset Bab\u00fcr-Winter says that the barrier to entry for N\/A is a lot lower: For one thing, there are fewer regulations compared to full-proof drinks, especially tequila, which must be produced in specific parts of Mexico. It also avoids some prickly issues. Many have rightly noted that tequila is a culturally significant spirit and a source of income for many agricultural communities, whose livelihoods can be threatened by brands that rely on industrial agave production\u2014details that some celebrities involved appear to have little concern about.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/p>\n In that context, N\/A might be a more ethical and acceptable way to go. It also may be less likely to ruffle any feathers, at least for now. \u201cI\u2019m less judgmental or skeptical of celebrities getting into that space,\u201d Bab\u00fcr-Winter admits. Traditional alcoholic products like tequila have whole worlds of specialized knowledge around them, developed over centuries: \u201cIt\u2019s agriculture, it\u2019s farming, it\u2019s not something that you can just do in a lab,\u201d Bab\u00fcr-Winter says. \u201cBut you <\/span>can<\/span><\/i> do nonalcoholic drinks in a lab.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n There are also other factors that make N\/A, like tequila before it, particularly marketable with a famous face. Slickly packaged nonalcoholic drinks are often positioned as lifestyle products\u2014aspirational and wellness-adjacent, a manifestation of affordable luxury. See, for example, the brands\u2019 marketing language. \u201cWith <\/span>Bero<\/span><\/a> in hand, you\u2019re not just drinking\u2014you\u2019re embracing a badge of pride,\u201d announces the website for Tom Holland\u2019s new N\/A beer, also described as \u201ca signal for style.\u201d Kin helps the drinker \u201cachieve an elevated state of health, mood, or well-being\u201d with various \u201cenergy-transforming ingredients,\u201d while drinks from <\/span>G Spot<\/span><\/a>, the new sparkling soft-drink brand from Gillian Anderson, can \u201cuplift your spirit\u201d or help you \u201ctaste what pleasure feels like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n These kinds of signifiers and amorphous assurances are hardly limited to alcohol alternatives with big names attached\u2014the N\/A category still has porous edges and no agreed-upon definition, so whether you\u2019re buying or selling, it can be kind of whatever you want it to be. And who better to project aspirations onto than a celebrity?<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Of course, these wellness and lifestyle narratives aren\u2019t all necessarily constructed for marketing purposes. A lot of the celebrities getting involved in N\/A are sober themselves: Holland, for example, is sober, as is Danny Trejo, whose <\/span>Trejo\u2019s Spirits<\/span><\/a> offers alcohol-free tequila, gin and whiskey alternatives. Hadid has discussed her sobriety journey publicly, as has Cara Delevingne, whose Della Vite brand (co-owned with sisters Poppy and Chloe) announced <\/span>Della Vite Zero<\/span><\/a> last summer. Others may be keeping their abstinence from alcohol more private, though it\u2019s not only committed teetotalers who are driving the N\/A boom\u2014surely celebrities are allowed to be as sober-curious as the rest of us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Some consumers, though, remain skeptical. Alex Jump, director of operations at <\/span>Focus on Health<\/span><\/a> and the forthcoming <\/span>Peach Crease Club<\/span><\/a> in Denver, says she\u2019s always excited to see the category grow and evolve, but cautions that \u201cit\u2019s still important to ask all the same questions, and to taste the product critically.\u201d In an October 2024 survey, Watters asked Dry Atlas readers about the impact of \u201ccelebrity involvement,\u201d and 48 percent of respondents indicated it would make them less interested in trying a product<\/span>. \u201c<\/span><\/i>And that\u2019s up from one-third when we asked six months prior,\u201d she says. Some might perceive celebrity brands as more \u201cmass\u201d or less interesting, and even Watters grants that she\u2019s \u201cnot sure how novel and craft they\u2019ll really get.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n But she also notes that her sample group is mostly folks who are already serious about this category or even embedded in the industry\u2014and even the strongest skeptics acknowledge that more brand recognition might be just what it takes to bring more people into the fold. \u201cSo even if they personally aren\u2019t interested in the product, they\u2019re thankful that celebrities are bringing positive attention to the space among mass consumers,\u201d she says. In the end, it seems, the more the merrier.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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