Hot Girls finally have their thirst quenched.
Megan Thee Stallion's Tequila, Ghost Labs' RTD and what the maximal minimal polarity tell us about the next generation of drinks branding.
In the world of drinks, celebrity alcohol has become a fixture not a feature, and we consumers have an uncanny skill identifying who isn’t drinking their own cool aid.
Having made a Daily Mail sidebar or two for her tequila consumption over the years it’s refreshing to see someone who genuinely has right to play, enter the category, as Megan Thee Stallion launches her long-anticipated tequila brand.
Chicas Divertidas has the kind of Polly Pocket tactility that millennials of a certain age will understand on sight. Set within a world best described as Moulin Rouge on Steroids, the unabashedly maximalist mishmash of creative references – from Vegas showgirl to ‘80s airbrush ad, Dalà surrealism, all wrapped in a hot pink bow – suspends no disbelief between the artist and her entrepreneurial art.
This is a brand designed solely for the female gaze, even naming its drinkers ‘Hot Girls’ (an extension of Ms. Stallion’s established lexicon) and it poses an interesting question: In an age where most legacy spirits are desperately trying to win that younger more diverse consumer, what can going all in on a target do?
Moreso in a cultural climate where the sober-curious have evolved into the sober-conscious, Chicas Divertidas throws a bedazzled top hat into the ring for the belief that we can, and should, still drink to party. The Chicas jingle ‘Where are the girls that like to have fun’, serves as a call to action that could have even the most militant run club enthusiasts, sacrificing a Sunday morning for a night of being a Hot Girl.
The aesthetic bust to this visual boom? Ghostlabs, a collection of clarified, low-calorie RTDs, designed around a single flavour profile and released in ‘collections’.
Successfully ticking off every buzzword in the category (and then a few out of it), this line of canned cocktails is what you get when an ex-Diageo drinks scientist, an architect, and an award winning chef, walk into a bar.
Using the codes of contemporary skincare and fashion, Ghost Labs has been described as ‘eerily minimalist’, which in a space littered with the flavour-as-a-hammer tactic of product design, can only be a differentiator.
And its ‘not embarrassing to drink on the Overground’ design philosophy solves two problems with one cocktail. So often ready-to-drink ‘healthier’ alternatives are signalled through blue stickers, giant calorie labels, or an indiscriminate use of the word seltzer. Ghost Lab’s futuristic understatement and heavy reliance on copy, quietly signals ‘less bad for you’ does not have to mean ‘less desirable’.
What we can extrapolate from these stark opposites is, for drinks brands being seen in the age of social, has greatly evolved from the bog standard Key Visual. Whether at the minimal or maximal end of the spectrum, both speak to audiences in a language they understand – ‘the vibe’. Inviting us into an entire universe built from a unique creative vision. And vibe brands matter because they reorient what the status symbols are. And status drinks matter because according to IWSR, it’s one of the few sub-sectors seeing growth in the category.
Will the distribution gods have their way before either reach critical mass? Perhaps. Will both serve as a marker of taste for a group of highly influential people?
No proof needed.