The interest around NFTs has reached a fever pitch, with more and more public figures joining the craze daily. But with experts touting the metaverse as the future of the internet and the world as we know it, it’s understandable why celebs would want to get involved.
However there seems to be a bandwagon effect among celebrities for other markets, and the reasoning behind their sudden interest may not be as clear. For example, every time we turn around a new singer, actor or model is announcing the rollout of their new skincare line, all without having ever publicly shared their interest in the space before now. Some examples include Naomi Osaka’s Kinlo, Lori Harvey’s SKN, Alicia Keys’ Soul Care, and Pharrell’s sold-out Humanrace to name a few.
“We’ve had so many new celebrity brands in such a short period of time that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Winnie Awa, founder of beauty advice platform Carra Awa in a recent interview with the Washington Post. “Why not collaborate with people who are doing the work? Why not invest in some of these innovative independent brands that can’t get funding?”
This seems to be the question on many people’s minds, but it’s important to remember that celebrity business trends aren’t new. Since the golden-era of Hollywood, stars have aligned themselves with business ventures that make sense for their bottom line and have leveraged their fame to ensure the public help drive sales. In layman’s terms, the celebrity business bandwagon is nothing. Here’s what we mean.
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2020s: NFTs
NFTs have invaded entertainment and there’s no turning back. Snoop Dogg, Ja Rule and Ashanti are just a few stars that have thrown their name and likeness into the metaverse.
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2020s: Skincare
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2010s: Fragrances
Celebs will always expand their brand into perfumery, but into the 2010s, it seemed like there was a onslaught of scents made by our favorite stars on the shelves. In 2010 alone, Halle Berry, Mariah Carey, Beyonce and Sean Combs all released or re-released their own signature fragrance. This makes perfect business sense considering just six years later (2016) the fragrance industry was valued at about $30B.
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2000s: Clothing Lines
In the 2000s, the fashion bug bit our favorites hard. Stars like Beyonce, Nelly, Kimora Lee Simmons (she technically launched Baby Phat in 1999 but it reached popularity in 2000) among many others put their brand behind the clothes on our backs. While some have stood the test of time, others have shuttered due to evolving consumer interests.
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1990s: Makeup
Although Iman was one of the only Black women to launch her own cosmetics line in 1994, the space was saturated with other non-Black celebrities aiming to capture some of the billions that consumers spent on beauty products. A few years later, Brandy was tapped for a history-making deal as the face of Covergirl, the first Black singer to do so.
