From NFT Disasters to Cursed Candles: The Most Spectacular Celebrity Business Flops, Ranked

At some point in the last decade, every A-lister, B-lister, and "remember them from that one thing" celebrity decided that being famous wasn't enough. They needed to be founders. Entrepreneurs. Disruptors. They needed a brand.

Some pulled it off. Most did not.

We're not here to talk about the wins. We're here for the spectacular, glorious, almost-impressive-in-their-failure flops. The ventures so ill-conceived, so perfectly wrong, that you almost have to respect the confidence it took to launch them. Buckle up — this is our definitive, lovingly snarky ranking of celebrity business disasters that hit harder than their worst reviews.

Honorable Mention: Every Celebrity NFT Collection, Collectively

Before we get into the individual carnage, we have to acknowledge the era as a whole. The years 2021 and 2022 were a golden age of celebrities hawking JPEGs to their fans with the enthusiasm of a used car salesman and the business acumen of a golden retriever. Paris Hilton, Justin Bieber, Eminem, Madonna — nearly everyone with a verified checkmark launched an NFT collection, promised it was "the future," and then watched the market crater like a stock in a disaster movie.

The losses weren't just financial. The fan trust burned along with those digital wallets. When your favorite artist is selling pixelated apes for $200,000 and telling you it's an investment, something has gone very wrong in the relationship. This one gets honorable mention because it wasn't one celebrity's failure — it was an entire industry's collective moment of hubris, and honestly, it deserves its own documentary.

5. The Streaming Platform That Forgot to Stream Things People Wanted

Let's talk about Quibi. Technically not a single celebrity's venture, but the fingerprints of Hollywood royalty were all over it — and the $1.75 billion raised from major studios and stars made it feel like a celebrity co-sign of the highest order. The premise: premium short-form video content for mobile, priced like Netflix, launched during a pandemic when everyone was watching content on their televisions like it was 2009.

Quibi lasted about six months before shutting down. It had original content from Spielberg. It had Jennifer Lopez. It had Chrissy Teigen hosting a courtroom show. None of it mattered because nobody could figure out why they'd pay $8 a month for something they couldn't watch on their TV. A masterclass in solving a problem nobody had.

4. The Wellness Brand That Wanted to Sell You Everything Except Answers

Goop didn't technically flop — which is the most unsettling part of this entry. But the individual product disasters within Goop's universe absolutely qualify. The jade eggs. The candle named after a certain part of female anatomy (you know the one) that became a meme before it sold out. The supplements that the FTC wasn't exactly thrilled about.

What's fascinating about Goop isn't that it failed commercially — it didn't, bafflingly — but that it became a cautionary tale about what happens when celebrity authority replaces scientific authority. When a famous face tells you something is good for your "energy" and charges you $90 for it, a certain segment of the population will absolutely buy it. The real flop here is the critical thinking that got left at the checkout screen.

3. The App Nobody Downloaded (But Everyone Made Fun Of)

Celebrity apps were a whole thing for a minute. Remember when having your own app was the move? Mariah Carey launched one. So did Kim Kardashian (hers actually worked, which is why she's not further up this list). But the real hall-of-fame disaster belongs to the wave of artists who launched apps promising "exclusive access" and delivered... push notifications and a photo gallery you could have just put on Instagram for free.

One particularly memorable example: a major pop star's app launched with significant fanfare, charged a monthly subscription fee, and featured content that fans described online as "three blurry photos and a voice memo." The app was quietly discontinued within a year. The voice memo lives on in infamy.

2. The Alcohol Brand That Forgot to Be Drinkable

Celebrity booze is everywhere now, and most of it is fine — some of it is genuinely good. But for every successful tequila brand, there's a wine, beer, or spirit launch that makes you wonder if anyone actually tasted the product before putting a famous face on the label.

The most memorable disasters in this space involve limited-edition spirits with price points that made no sense, vodkas that tasted like ambition and regret, and a rosé that got review-bombed so thoroughly the brand's own social media team went quiet for two weeks. We're being deliberately vague here because the lawsuits were real, but if you were online during peak celebrity alcohol era, you know exactly which ones we mean.

The pattern is always the same: celebrity lends name, manufacturer cuts corners, product launches at premium price, fans feel burned, brand quietly fades. Repeat.

1. The Fashion Line That Launched, Gasped, and Died in One Season

The number one spot belongs to the category of celebrity fashion lines that lasted exactly long enough to generate a press release and a single runway moment before vanishing entirely. Not naming names — there are too many — but the formula is grimly consistent.

A celebrity with a devoted fanbase decides they have "a real vision for fashion." They partner with a manufacturer, hold a launch event, get magazine coverage, and then... the clothes hit stores. Fans discover that a $300 hoodie with the celebrity's handwriting on it is just a hoodie. Retailers start discounting. The line gets quietly discontinued. The celebrity's team issues a statement about "creative differences" and "exciting future projects."

The most spectacular version of this involved a reality TV personality whose entire clothing line was pulled from a major retailer within 90 days of launch due to quality complaints. The items are now a collector's item in the "this is deeply funny" sense.

So Why Does This Keep Happening?

The answer is pretty simple: fame is not a business plan. It's an audience, and an audience is only valuable if you're offering them something real. The celebrities who build lasting brands — and some genuinely do — tend to be deeply involved in the product, obsessive about quality, and honest about what they're selling.

The ones who flop treat their fanbase like a guaranteed customer base rather than a community that chose them. Fans can smell the cash grab. They always could. They just have more platforms to say so now.

The good news? Every one of these disasters is deeply entertaining to read about. And somewhere right now, a publicist is pitching a celebrity on their next big venture. We'll be watching.