The short answer is yes. If you can find the right fit for your brew, spirits, or ready-to-drink product, celebrities are a time-proven way to get attention in a crowded marketplace.

And that’s the foundational challenge for any liquor brand: how to compete for valuable shelf space in liquor stores and other outlets. Distributors take a percentage of your sales, but their entire function is to store and then deliver product to shelves. They don’t take an active part in your marketing and consumer outreach, which makes sense if they represent several competing brands.

So even if you have a superior product (and we’ll assume for the sake of this piece that you do), you’re competing against dozens of brands in the same space, some of which might have a head start on getting noticed. It’s up to the brewer or distiller to connect with consumers and build excitement about their product through social media platforms, tastings, and other kinds of promotions.

Enter the celebrity’s brand. Whether it’s an influencer, Oscar nominee, or well-known, er, drinker, the celebrity will get your brand launched within a few months, rather than the years it would take you to build an audience. Matthew McConaughey, known for his Texas roots, authenticity, and his love of tequila, owns his own brand, Pantalones – “the official tequila of getting out of line.” If it were your tequila he was endorsing, you’d have the powers of his 10 million followers on Facebook and on Instagram.

You probably can’t grab Matthew McConaughey, but Good Boy ready-to-drink vodka products snagged John Daly’s endorsement. Daly, who is famous for enjoying beverages, is a great fit for a product whose tagline is “Sip Like a Legend.” The mixes contain tea, fruit, and vodka, with zero sugar, zero carbs, and only 95 calories. Hence, the idea is that John Daly chooses these to drink like a “good boy.”

Daly has invested time and talent into promotion, including appearances on podcasts, interviews, and tastings. He’s also a great example of finding the right fit at the right time; he appears in the recently released “Happy Gilmore 2,” which ranked first on Netflix’s top 10 English-language movies list, drawing 46.7 million views in three days. It is also the biggest US Netflix film debut of 2025. That’s a lot of John Daly views.

Although every deal is different, most are structured around investing or becoming a guarantor for the liquor brand. In exchange for somewhere between two and ten percent of sales, profits, or equity in the company, a celebrity might agree to promote the product on podcasts, in appearances, or social media posts. The brand may not get John Daly at every tasting, but they may get a six-foot-tall cardboard version to draw attention to their booth or table.

Some brands have partnered with sports teams or venues to get the same benefits. The NBA has Hennessy as its official spirit. The NHL has J.P. Wiser’s whisky as its official whisky in Canada and Jägermeister as its official shot in the US. The NFL’s official spirits partner is Diageo, with brands like Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, and Crown Royal. The WNBA’s official wine partner is La Crema. 

Of course, those brands have more buying power than small distilleries, but venues and events like concerts offer opportunities to get your product in front of a new crowd that is filled with energy.

So, back to the question. Does a celebrity add value to your brand? Yes, but with a caveat. The “celebrity deal” means little and doesn’t add value; however, if the arrangement works, and you are moving more product, it certainly does.