Businessweek
Clooney’s $1 Billion Tequila Windfall Shows Power of Celebrity
- Diageo harnesses actor’s name recognition to expand in tequila
- Shares fall as analysts question price of Casamigos brand
The side of a delivery truck features a billboard promoting George Clooney and Rande Gerber's Casamigos Tequila
Photographer: George Rose/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
From the George Foreman grill to George Clooney’s tequila, celebrity sells.
Rarely has a sale been as lucrative as the $1 billion the actor and two partners could fetch for Casamigos, the tequila brand they founded only four years ago. What started more as a hobby among a few guys hanging out in Mexico morphed into a must-have brand, fueled by Clooney’s star power and the lure of casual-luxury life depicted on the Casamigos Instagram feed.