After learning how to make spirits, he worked with Hennessy for 10 years before launching Cîroc with the beverage company Diageo in 2003. Jean-Sébastien Robicquet, a French man whose family has crafted wine for nearly 500 years, created Cîroc.
Surprisingly, despite what it looks like, Diddy is not the creator of Cîroc. It’s likely that 95 percent of the time you see Diddy in public, he’s cradling a bottle of Cîroc. Whenever you see a skinny, crystal clear bottle of Cîroc vodka in a liquor store, it’s difficult to separate it from Sean “Diddy” Combs. “The goal for this is something that, if you were in the mood for it, you can go to your local store, you can go to your local gas station, you can go to your local bodega, you can go to the bar and find this product.” -Mike DeStefano “We’re looking to build this brand for the next few years and decades to come,” vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch’s Beyond Beer segment Lana Buchanan told Complex in March. And this isn’t going to be a limited offering either. As always, Scott went above and beyond with the rollout. The video for his single “Franchise” even doubled as a CACTI ad. A commercial, which featured a surprising cameo from comedian Eric Andre, ran during the 2021 Grammys.
To coincide with its debut, the team released a full merch capsule featuring branded T-shirts, crewnecks, wall clocks, koozies, and even rugs. CACTI is more than just a beverage you can cop at your local liquor or beer store. It sits at 7 percent while other popular brands like White Claw and Truly sit at 5 percent. The Anheuser-Busch-produced beverage sets itself apart from the crowded hard seltzer market with its higher ABV (alcohol by volume) content. Individual tallboy cans are also available in lime and pineapple. CACTI is offered in three flavors-pineapple, lime, and strawberry-and sold in nine-can variety packs. In March 2021, Scott introduced his newest non-musical venture to the world, a blue agave-infused hard seltzer beverage, CACTI. Over the past two years, the Houston rapper has become a go-to endorser for brands ranging from Nike to McDonald’s. It shouldn’t be surprising to see Travis Scott’s name on this list. Here, we outlined the 13 most famous celebrity alcohol brands. Not all of the celebrities in this story own the brands they endorse, and some brands have been more successful than others, but they’ve all represented a particular moment and spoken to hip-hop’s ability to sell products and make brands relevant. He opened up a door for artists like Travis Scott, who recently partnered with Anheuser-Busch to produce his spiked seltzer Cacti, which sold out in multiple locations less than 24 hours after it was released. That led Jay-Z to call for a boycott of the company, and he went on to get involved in the liquor business himself, investing in Armand de Brignac (better known as Ace of Spades), which he recently sold 50 percent of to LVMH. But a major shift happened when a former Cristal staffer spoke disparagingly about hip-hop embracing the brand in 2006. Hip-hop artists didn’t always have their own liquor brands to promote, hence why you would hear frequent mentions of Moët, Dom Pérignon, and Cristal on songs. So it makes sense that celebrities have ventured into the category, particularly those whose music is such a big part of nightlife and are able to advertise their brands on songs that permeate the clubs. In the US alone, the liquor market with sales in 2020 at $31.2 billion.