The Sellout Era of the Creator Economy

Celebrity Sell Outs? Or Buying In? This week saw the likes of Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) + Logan Paul launch a Lunchables competitor, Tucker Carlson launch a nicotine pouch to compete with Zyn, and Michelle Obama hawking her CPG brand at a local Costco.

Appearing at a SF Bay-area Costco slinging her new better-for-you beverage Plezi, Michelle Obama’s appearance drew sharp contrast with Lunchly: a product that features candy and high sodium content; evidenced by the social media backlash that followed.

Our Take: It’s also a reminder of the normalization of celebrity-to-sellout as a new expectation from consumers. Some founders have multiple CPG investments; take Blake Lively for instance. Lively’s brand investments include the three B’s: beauty, beverage, and booze. But don’t be fooled: for every Kardashian with depth in a management team, there’s a turnkey brand available for even the most D-list of celebs.

As we covered in Drake’s Pants, celebrity brand extensions are as American as apple pie, and in the creator economy it is normalized en masse, encouraged in the culture as a status signifier.

The faster a celebrity capitalizes on ready-made brands, the more we’ll see flash-in-the-pan success and failures.

AI Agents Are Here. “Brands” Might Be In Danger. The newest episode of the Future Commerce podcast features a review of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s interview at the All In Summit, held in UCLA’s Royce Hall. Benioff’s new focus is to build Salesforce into a generational AI company, beginning with their investment in Einstein, their branded AI product launched in 2018, and culminating with a new announcement around AI Agents and intelligent automation. Listen on Apple or Spotify.

Trademark Turf War. CPG star Muddy Bites has filed a lawsuit against their silly name competitor “Just The Fun Part” for trademark and trade dress infringement. Lawyer Rob Freund shared in a post on X/Twitter the details from the complaint, including side-by-side images that showed the brand founding story and marketing images which show similarities.

“The concept/expression are basically one and the same,” commented lawyer Adam Starr. Considering the Muddy Bites brand was effectively an unbundled Nestle Drumstick sundae cone, this may be a tough case to win.

Pup-kin Spice? Dunkin’ and subscription box brand BARK have teamed up to launch pumpkin spice dog toys to celebrate their five-year partnership. The toys “delight dogs and their owners” and proceeds go to Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation. The key ingredient in pumpkin spice is nutmeg; no word yet if neutered dogs find this offensive.

You Can’t Spell “Illegal” Without A.I. California has made it illegal to use AI to replace actors, thanks to new legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. The move, supported by SAG-AFTRA, marks a forward step in protecting the rights and livelihoods of actors in an era where AI poses both opportunities and existential threats to traditional roles in the entertainment industry.