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Celebrity influence used to move culture. Now it can’t even move soda off a grocery shelf.

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Hollywood once manufactured stars. Today the public mostly scrolls past them.

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When celebrity status fades, the applause disappears first and the sales numbers follow.

BRIEFING

Jett here. There’s a clip making the rounds online that perfectly captures a strange new moment in our culture: Ben Stiller, once a massive Hollywood star, standing awkwardly in a grocery store trying to sell his new soda while shoppers walk right past him like he’s the sample guy at aisle seven. Nobody is rushing over. Nobody is freaking out. Just a mildly uncomfortable celebrity realizing the room has moved on. Let’s get into it.

For decades, Hollywood celebrities were treated like cultural royalty. If a movie star endorsed a product, people bought it. If they pushed a political cause, the media amplified it and people listened. If they walked into a grocery store, the entire place would stop and stare.

That world is fading fast.

Now you’ve got Ben Stiller pushing his new soda line in a supermarket while the internet laughs at the clip.

SOURCE

Ben Stiller launched a soda line, made a public appearance at a grocery store and literally no one gave AF.

The world is healing.pic.twitter.com/aI7o7zT5oU

— Steve 🇺🇸 (@SteveLovesAmmo) March 16, 2026

Meanwhile, Blake Lively, another once-untouchable Hollywood name, is watching the sales of her new cocktail brand circle the drain. Is Hollywood really that broke that these so-called “A-listers” now have to get into the food and beverage game?

SOURCE

New reports claim that Blake Lively's products are suffering a notable drop in sales amid the controversy surrounding her legal dispute with actor Justin Baldoni.

The businesses reportedly affected include Lively's haircare brand, Blake Brown, and her alcoholic beverage line, Betty Booze. Blake Brown allegedly saw a decline of up to 78% around the time she filed her sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni.

The grocery aisle has become Hollywood’s new red carpet. Clean up on aisle seven, please. It’s almost as if the movie business itself isn’t delivering the cultural power it once did, and celebrities are now grasping at straws.

There was a time when Hollywood set the tone for the country. The movies defined what was cool, and celebrities defined what people wore, what they drank, and what they believed politically.

Now Tinsel Town's influence is competing with something so much bigger and way more chaotic.

Social media.

Influencers, streamers, podcasters, and regular people with an iPhone now command audiences that rival or even surpass traditional celebrity reach. The gatekeepers are gone, and the public’s tolerance for that polished, phony "celebrity messaging" has evaporated.

Ironically, influencers are now starting to run into the same wall.

The internet loves watching someone rise. People enjoy seeing the “regular guy” succeed. But the moment that person becomes too polished, too corporate, too much like the celebrities they replaced, the audience moves on. The same cycle repeats.

SOURCE

People aren’t just laughing at influencers—they’re actively opting out. One report found that 34 percent of Gen Zers have ditched at least one social media app, according to Hill Holiday. And not a moment too soon for their parents. A 2023 survey found 56 percent of Gen Z wanted to be influencers. Compare that to Chinese kids, 56 percent of whom named “astronaut” as their dream job.

Luxury hotels are banning creators altogether after too many tried trading “exposure” for free stays. Studios now rent out faux private jet sets for $60 an hour to influencers desperate to fake first-class travel. Even fans are noticing how eerily samey the feed has become: rows of carbon-copy faces doing the same makeup routines, in the same soft lighting, promoting the same skin serum.

Because the cultural appetite has changed. People want realness.

And in many ways, President Trump accelerated that shift. Love him or hate him, Trump shattered the carefully scripted language of politics and media. He injected a level of bluntness and unpredictability that made the polished, rehearsed style of politicians and celebrities feel totally fake.

Now the internet rewards people who feel unscripted and genuine. Now, the old Hollywood model of perfectly managed celebrity branding feels out of date.

Which is how you end up with a famous actor standing in a grocery store aisle, hoping someone will come buy his crappy soda.

DEBRIEFING

Could the whole thing be a self-deprecating PR stunt? Sure. In today’s marketing world, awkward clips can be carefully engineered to go viral.

But even if that’s the case, the joke only works because it reflects reality.

The public doesn’t care about celebrities the way it once did. The cultural spell has been broken.

And that's a good thing.

Because when celebrity worship fades, something else takes its place...

Reality.

NOW YOU KNOW

The world might actually be healing.