JLo Gets Backlash For New Alcohol Brand: ‘You Don’t Even Drink’
Jenniffer Lopez has launched Delola, a brand-new company that markets tequila, vodka, and amaro spirits. The singer is adding yet another revenue stream to her global brand and disappointing her public in the process.
Delola has left her fans with a sour aftertaste.
Many are wondering why JLo is fronting an alcohol brand when she hardly drinks and her husband, Ben Affleck, is a recovering alcoholic.
The answer is easy — brand diffusion. The latter is when companies use the same brand name on items of varying price points.
A controversial move
Jennifer Lopez’s brand diffusion echoes Halston — the American fashion designer who rose to unprecedented international fame in the 1980s but lost his brand (and name) to business people and corporations.
In her fan newsletter — On the JLo — she explained that Lola (supposedly ex-husband Marc Anthony’s cute name for Lopez ) embodied her “more playful, carefree side.”
“She is the part of me that lets loose … because the truth is at heart, and I’ve been known to tell my friends this on occasion … Just so you know, I’m the girl who dances on the table,” she wrote.
JLo says Delola was inspired by the “Italian coastline,” the playground of La Dolce Vita stars like Federico Fellini, Ernest Hemmingway, Princess Margaret, and now Lola.
“This all came about when I fell in love with the effortlessly elegant lifestyle of the Italian coast,” she says in a promo video, branding DeLola a lifestyle in a bottle — not precisely an Elsa Perretti design, but there you have it.
There are three ready-to-drink spritzes — the Bella Berry with vodka, the Paloma Rosa with tequila, and the L’orange with an amaro base. The 750ml bottles retail for $23, and the 375ml is $12.
However, talking with People, she said she’s “not a huge alcohol whatever — alcohol drinker.”
In 2016, she told Us Weekly that she doesn’t “drink or smoke or have caffeine” and, that same year said to InStyle that drinking could “ruin” your skin.
Delola is gluten-free and has little sugar, so that’s okay. But doesn’t it sound too Goopy for you?
The new venture didn’t go down well with JLo fans
Fans were quick to respond to the brand’s announcement. Many called the singer a “hypocrite.”
Of course, the word “disappointed” came up a lot, but the red flag for Jennifer Lopez and her advisors should be “money grab” and “capitalism strikes again.”
According to Forbes, Lopez is one of America’s wealthiest self-made women, with an estimated net worth exceeding $150 million.
The Boricua businesswoman already has a cosmetic, clothing, and perfume line. She recently announced she was getting into the cruise business.
The singer has numerous licensing and endorsement deals with brands such as Versace, Pepsi, DSW, and Coach.
She is also the new global ambassador of Intimissimi with the launch of the lingerie brand’s spring 2023 campaign.
For many fans and those who are not, Delola is nothing more than JLo expanding her already-expanded empire.
Hawking a “DeLola life” to the masses at affordable prices will surely make her oodles of money, just like fashion designer Halston did when he sold out to JCPenny.
Halston became one of the earliest designers to extend his brand to multiple price points. As a result, the label grew to encompass everything from fragrance to luggage to carpets, and the name Halston became a joke.
Granted, Jennifer Lopez doesn’t share the other side of Halston — which is a synonym for excess — drugs, fashion, and drink.
But Halston’s tale, the cheapening of his brand that made him a wealthy man, is cautionary. JLo should take heed.
