What Yet Another Celebrity Brand Tells Us
Yes, many fail because there are opportunity costs and regrets. Lunchly might be next.
MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI are some of the largest internet personalities. They know how to catch eyeballs. Their YouTube followings combine to be larger than the population of the United States. KSI has 24 million subscribers, Logan Paul has 23.6 million, and MrBeast has 317 million. They are everywhere.
Wikipedia lists KSI as a social media influencer, professional boxer with a 4-1 record, and musician. Logan Paul is a WWE wrestler, boxer, actor, podcast host, and influencer. KSI and Logan also are co-founders of Prime, a sports drink. MrBeast is more siloed as a YouTuber, having the largest subscriber base on the platform. He is a philanthropist having planted 24.7 million trees through his foundation. He doesn’t have as many side quests, but he founded MrBeast Burger and Feastables, a chocolate and snack brand. All three own a piece of the internet, and their slice is only growing.
Recently, the three joined forces to launch Lunchly, a direct competitor to Lunchables. Each box of Lunchly includes a Prime and Feastables. It is pitched as a healthy alternative to Lunchables. 310 calories to only 230 calories. 21 grams of sugar to only seven grams of sugar. Real cheese versus fake cheese.
Despite the claims, let’s say, the initial reaction wasn’t great. The nutrition of Lunchly is lacking. Heaps of sodium are disguised as “electrolytes”. It is full of ultra-processed food. It is another case of selling stuff to fans to make money but offering little benefit. People weren’t happy. Logan and MrBeast pushed back against the claims. Doubling down on Lunchly being a healthier alternative to Lunchables and telling people if they don’t like it, they don’t have to buy it.
There have been tons of articles attacking the nutritional value of Lunchly, and if you are concerned about what kids or humans eat, it makes sense. But it is another content creator/celebrity/influencer to product development case– another celebrity dipping their toe outside their normal business and creating their own product elsewhere. Michelle Obama recently launched PLEZi FiZZ, a healthy alternative to sugary juice and soda, with much fanfare. The launches garner attention, but it doesn’t always end well.
Dax Sheppard and Kristen Bell created a baby brand that filed for bankruptcy last year. The Ball family created a basketball shoe that failed miserably. Hulk Hogan’s Pastamania restaurant closed within a year of opening. It is hard. Being a public figure who has a business they are known for and expanding into a different industry is tough.
Logan, KSI, and MrBeast are not immune either. It could be part of the reason why they are teaming up. Prime sales sank in the beginning of 2024, year-over-year sales were down over 50%. A brand that was once impossible to keep on shelves is now marked down. Prime faces a lawsuit for advertising itself as healthy and containing a substance that can cause an elevated risk of cancer.
People are constantly chasing new business ventures rather than further committing to the community they built themselves in. It is the illusion of optionality. Why would these influencers not create their own brands? They can go directly to the consumer and avoid working with a major brand. The whole pie could be theirs, not just a slice of it. It seems like a no-brainer, but it isn’t that easy.
It is difficult to succeed at two things at once. Logan Paul and KSI are flourishing YouTubers, who wrestle, box, act, and operate a sports drink company. It is good they are attempting to provide healthy alternatives. If they fail, so be it. But it pulls time away from why people love them.
It is narcissistic to think we can master multiple things while beating those focused on one thing. To be relevant on YouTube while beating Powerade, Monster, Celsius, and Gatorade in the sports drink market. Logan Paul, KSI, and MrBeast are good at maximizing the algorithm, not energy drink formulation or retail sales.
Sports are a metaphor. Michael Jordan attempted to play baseball but failed to go to the major leagues and led his minor league team in strikeouts. DK Metcalf learned football speed doesn’t equal track speed when he placed last in his heat against professional track and field athletes. Tim Tebow, one of the greatest college football athletes, failed as a professional baseball player.
There lies an illusion that we can replace the specific work required for success in one area. Sure, crossover exists. In business, understanding customers, catching eyeballs, and capturing market share is important, but across different business fields, it is comparing apples to oranges. What might appeal to a kid scrolling YouTube doesn’t have the same influence on an athlete looking for a sports hydration drink.
Christopher Hitchens, a British author, says,
“In life, we must choose our regrets.”
There are opportunity costs. Things you must deprioritize to make something else work. Sacrifice one thing to be great at another. Our world has an abundance of options, hello Lunchly. But it is dangerous because the number of options convinces us we can do it all. We can pick up another side hustle and succeed while avoiding the necessary work.
The declining sales of Prime and other failed celebrity brands show why we must choose our regrets. They launch a brand while focusing most of their time on what made them successful, and inevitably, their brand suffers. You can only be good at so many things. There are going to be things you regret.
In high school, I tried to be a competitive runner and lifter. It went as good as it sounds. Trying to balance both led me to be not great at either and failing at one, running. I realized one has to come before the other. I deprioritized running at the end of my senior year, and I started reaching my lifting goals.
Jerry Seinfeld tells a story about being invited to speak to a comedy class at The Improv in LA. He reluctantly accepts the invitation. He opens by telling the class the fact they signed up for the class is a very bad sign. He tells them no one knows anything about comedy and can’t help you. But he says, if you want to do it, he should place a flag behind him, pull a string, the flag rolls down, and it reads ‘just work’.
Just work. Nothing can replace the work. Seinfeld has never launched a chocolate bar, hydration drink, or a new “healthy” soda because it takes time away from his work. It would be difficult to be a renowned comedian and the successful founder of a new healthy soda.
Seeing celebrities venture into other industries is important. It shows how hard it is to succeed at two things. Some of the best business people can't do it. Things will fail. Opportunities will be missed and that’s okay. We have to choose our regrets and what we want to succeed at. Lunchly might be another example of a celebrity brand that proves it.
-Scantron
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"If you chase two rabbits, you will catch neither." -Chinese Proverb
Great read, thanks.
My first, slightly despairing thought, though, was that this doesn't bode well for politics - as in how we make policy decisions for some of the core areas of our lives (health, education, etc.). We have people who more often than not have little to no expertise in these areas. And the consequences are serious.