- Aligning a brand with a celebrity can be dangerous.
- Last year, a number of stars suffered reputational damage that affected their business partners.
- Heading into 2025, brands need to be more thorough and smarter when deciding who to partner with.
Celebrity brands can be as dangerous as they are glamorous, and last year was no exception.
The most serious scandal – and dramatic financial decline – was that of Sean Combs, who was accused of sex trafficking and blackmail, charges the rapper denies.
But other A-listers, such as Blake Lively and MrBeast, faced reputational damage in 2024. Their meltdowns – and the effects they’ve had on their businesses and partners – show just how dangerous it can be to rely on star power to boost a business.
“2024 taught us that no creator — regardless of their level of success or support — is immune to controversy,” Nate Harris, VP at creator marketing platform CreatorIQ, told Business Insider.
For decades, Combs has illustrated how a star can cash in on their fame. However, since he was first accused of rape and abuse in November 2023, his fall from grace has been swift and his businesses have taken hit after hit.
Diageo, his partner of more than a decade, said it best: “Mr. Combs is aware that these lawsuits make it impossible for him to continue to be the ‘face’ of anything,” the giant’s lawyers wrote of alcoholic beverages in one. letter to a judge after sexual assault lawsuits began pouring in.
Diageo is now said to be considering offloading Cîroc, the vodka brand Combs represented. It could be a tough sell given her association with Diddy, who has denied any wrongdoing.
“Combs went from cultural icon to cautionary tale in record time,” Stacy Jones, CEO of branding agency Hollywood Branded, told BI.
But the consequences of celebrities – and their numbers on a business – need not be so pronounced.
Get Blake Lively’s reaction. At the premiere of her film It Ends With Us, the actress faced an onslaught of negative press and attacks on social media, calling her difficult to work with and retweeting unflattering clips of her behavior of the past.
Whether justified or not — Lively has sued Justin Baldoni, her actor and director, saying he waged a retaliatory smear campaign — the attacks had a negative effect on her Blake Brown hair care line, the company said in a statement. report cited by The New York Times. . The hair care line said it lost up to 78% of its sales, according to the Times.
Blake Brown is a joint venture with Give Back Beauty, a celebrity brand incubator. Give Back Beauty, Blake Brown and representatives for Lively did not respond to BI’s requests for comment.
Similar reputational damage came to Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, the world’s most popular YouTube star, who was set to break into traditional media this year with the Amazon Prime show “Beast Games.”
While Amazon has not disclosed the show’s budget, Donaldson said the series cost more than $100 million. Amazon hoped it would attract advertisers to the platform.
Beast Games was marred by controversy for months before it debuted. The contestants said they suffered injuries and complained of what they described as a lack of medical care and food on pre-shoots for the show in Las Vegas. The show was also received negatively by critics, earning a 14% on Rotton Tomatoes.
“The filming of MrBeast’s promotional video, which involved over 2,000 participants, was unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather and other unexpected logistical and communication issues, which we looked into and are grateful that almost everyone guests in Toronto enthusiastically accepted our invitation,” a BI representative told MrBeast, adding that they “continue to comply with the rules industry standards and regulations”.
While it’s performing well, according to Amazon’s own rankings, the whole ordeal has been a headache for the tech company — and it could cost the streamer. An Amazon insider told BI that they believed the negative press was affecting ad sales. A number of Beast Games competitors also filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging sexual harassment and payment problems, among other complaints.
A representative for MrBeast said he has not been served, but declined to comment further on the lawsuit.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
Celebrity highlights
To be sure, some brands had successful years. Selena Gomez’s rare beauty is reportedly receiving billion-dollar investment offers, and Kim Kardashian’s Skims opened its own brick-and-mortar stores.
These success stories can be reason enough for brands to continue collaborating with celebrities or investors to invest money in famous businesses.
Going forward, more care will be taken when choosing partners and deciding whether to keep those partnerships, Harris and Jones said.
Part of that means vetting celebrities or influencers using tools that gauge online sentiment — positive or negative — about those stars and whether they align with the current cultural moment.
Brands most often rate partners based on their content about politics, mentions of competitors, insults, illegal substances and sensitive social issues.
And when a celebrity steps out of line, brands will be more proactive in distancing themselves.
“Brands are increasingly quick to cut ties with problematic figures to protect their integrity,” Jones said.
“Audiences understand that brands are not always to blame for a celebrity’s actions, but they expect clear and thoughtful responses when controversy arises,” she added.
