Mashed's Exclusive Survey Admits The Cringiest Celebrity Food Collaboration
Celebrity collaborations and sponsorships may seem like a safe bet when it comes to increasing sales for restaurants and food companies. According to Stacker, an endorsement from a celeb does more than just advertise a product — it's a recommendation from someone you admire. It helps to build trust between the company and the customer.
Celebrity-branded food can spark a connection that cements the partnership between the spokesperson and the product. Actors like Michael Jordan and George Forman have both successfully joined forces with different companies and become synonymous with their products, per Stacker. Another example, Weight Watchers, would be much lesser known if not for Oprah Winfrey championing the company on television in advertisements, as well as in print, and digital form, per Adweek.
While these campaigns can be quite profitable, some just don't take off, as revealed in a Mashed exclusive survey of which celebrity food collaborations are the cringiest.
Pepsi ad with supermodel flops
A Mashed survey of which celebrity food partnerships are the most cringe-worthy indicated collaborations that go poorly aren't quickly forgotten. Kendall Jenner's partnership with Pepsi was deemed the most deserving of cringe in the survey of 599 people. The data revealed that 35.06% of participants thought this collab was unsuccessful — and not for no reason.
According to NBC News, Pepsi retracted an ad from airwaves that featured Jenner as a protest leader in 2017 (via YouTube). In the ad, Jenner poses in a photoshoot as a group of protesters marches down the street. She joins the marchers. Critics accused Pepsi of appropriating the Black Lives Matter movement for corporate gain following the shootings of African Americans by police.
The second-cringiest collaboration, according to the Mashed survey, features Miley Cyrus and Chipotle. Other partnerships that made survey participants cringe were Saweetie and Mcdonald's, Meghan Thee Stallion and Popeyes, and Charlie D'Amelio and Dunkin'.