Following the tragedy at the festival that left 10 dead, Nike postponed the release of their most recent Air Max 1 x Cactus Jack sneaker partnership with Scott.
After last month’s horrific Astroworld festival accident, Travis Scott’s spiked seltzer Cacti was canceled.
A 9-year-old boy was among the 10 people murdered in a crowd surge in Houston tragedy that Anheuser-Busch announced would be discontinued on Friday.
Why did Cacti seltzer disappear?
Anheuser-Busch announced on December 11, 2021, “We have decided to halt all production and brand development of Cacti Agave Spiked Seltzer,” while a source close to Scott indicated that the decision hadn’t been made permanently at the time.
Could I still purchase cacti?
Travis Scott’s Cacti Agave Spiked Seltzer completely sold out on the company’s website within a day of its March debut. The item has been formally restocked and is now available for purchase here because to the overwhelmingly positive response to the rapper’s new business venture.
Should Cacti be restricted?
Contrary to the majority of Travis Scott’s prior releases, CACTI won’t be available only through his website or be so scarce that it will sell out in a matter of minutes. According to Buchanan, CACTI will eventually be positioned next to a number of different brands when you stop by the shop to buy your next six-pack.
When will Cacti seltzer return?
Following the Astroworld festival last month, which resulted in hundreds of injuries, ten fatalities, and a growing number of lawsuits, both fans and businesses are turning away from the Travis Scott brand, which is no longer as appealing as it once was. Anheuser-Busch, which announced in a statement that it was ceasing manufacture of Scott’s Cacti Agave Spiked Seltzer, is the most recent company to distance itself from the musician.
“Following careful consideration, we have decided to halt all Cacti Agave manufacturing and brand development. The brewing business notified AdAge that their Seltzer is spiked. Fans of the brand will likely comprehend and respect this choice, we feel. Scott’s product has been taken off the shelves, and Anheuser-Busch has also deleted Cacti’s social media accounts.
Possibly coming back
However, TMZ claims that Cacti will eventually return. An unnamed member of Scott’s inner circle informed the outlet that Travis made it plain in his interview that his priority is aiding his community and followers in healing right now. On November 30, the decision to remove the product from shelves became official. ” Cacti requested that AB InBev let their wholesalers know there won’t be any product at this time.
The interview to which the source alludes was Scott’s first since Astroworld and was conducted on December 9 with Charlamagne Tha God as the host. The rapper spoke candidly about the festival’s activities for 50 minutes, calling it “an emotional rollercoaster.” Nevertheless, all of the accusations against Scott, including those of negligence, have been refuted by his legal counsel. Scott “is not legally culpable for the catastrophe,” according to a representative for the rapper who spoke to Rolling Stone.
Scott, the festival’s spokesperson, has received the majority of the criticism for the incidents at Astroworld, but lawyers have also singled out event promoters like Live Nation, who they claim have a duty to ensure the safety of all concertgoers. The idea that Scott should be held responsible for the tragedy has ultimately been rejected by Scott: “The media wants to put on me, but at the end of the day… it’s more so about stepping out to figure out what the problem is, he stated in the interview.
La Flame extinguishes.
It should become obvious who is most responsible for the catastrophe when additional claimants file lawsuits against Scott and Astroworld organizers—there are already close to 300—in the future. But whether Scott is to blame for the incident or not, brands don’t want to be associated with it or the accompanying legal issues.
Since the release of Astroworld, the computer game Fortnite secretly pulled a Scott-themed emote from its library, while the sportswear company Nike postponed many of its projects with the artist. Anheuser-decision Busch’s to follow suit is not surprising, especially considering that Scott’s name appeared to be the primary selling point for the alcoholic beverage.
Travis Scott Cacti is produced by who?
Less than a year after its launch, Anheuser-Busch InBev is discontinuing Cacti, a hard seltzer brand backed by Travis Scott.
The choice was made after the rapper and influencer received unfavorable press after ten concertgoers at his Astroworld performance in November died as a result of crowd control problems. In the days that followed the tragedy, Cacti’s Twitter account went dark, and as of today, it has been deleted.
The brewer issued a statement saying, “After careful consideration, we have decided to cease all manufacturing and brand development of CACTI Agave Spiked Seltzer.
Fans of the brand will likely comprehend and respect this choice, we feel. When questioned if the choice had anything to do with the tragedy at Astroworld, a corporate official declined to offer any other details.
Has Bon Viv been abandoned?
The once-hot brand Cacti Agave Spiked Seltzer has been discontinued by Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) nine months after it was introduced as “the future of hard seltzer.” The move, which was first reported by Beer Business Daily and Beer Marketer’s Insights, shows how little patience major players have for brand building in the long tail of the hard seltzer market. It also shows that ABI intends to let Bud Light Hard Seltzer, which ranks third in chain stores, Michelob ULTRA Organic Seltzer, and Bud Light Platinum Seltzer, which ranks eleventh, take center stage for the foreseeable future.
Within a week of its launch, Cacti was a top-5 hard seltzer brand, but sales have since dropped to, at most, 1.1 percent of the market, placing it at #9.
69 percent of all chain retail sales are made by the leading brand families in the category, White Claw and Truly. Eighteen brands own 88.9% of the market share, including Cacti.
While it’s unclear if ABI supported Cacti for on-premise placements instead of Bud Light seltzer, which earned about 2% of total can volume in 2021, combined on- and off-premise data from Fintech and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) had Cacti at just over half a percent of the hard seltzer market.
Only category leaders White Claw (9%), Truly (2.6%), and Bud Light Hard Seltzer (1.9%) are shown by Fintech and the NBWA as having any substantial can share in the on-premise.
Cacti accounts for 1.1 percent of total hard seltzer sales in grocery, convenience, and big box shops, according to IRI’s off-premise chain retail data.
ABI’s preference for hard seltzer families with higher brand loyalty wasn’t Cacti’s only issue, either. A class action lawsuit was filed against it for using the word “agave,” and rapper Travis Scott, a brand partner and celebrity endorser, is currently embroiled in his own legal issues. Scott’s performance at the Astroworld festival on November 5 caused a crowd surge that resulted in ten fatalities, and as a result, Scott is being sued. The rapper’s collaboration with ABI ended on November 30 according to a spokesperson for him who also described the decision to do so as “mutual.” The cooperation was previously described by ABI as “a long-term collaborative effort.
Almost three times as much hard seltzer was sold in 2019 ($5 billion) in chain retail establishments in the United States that IRI tracks during the most recent 52-week period ending November 28. For Cacti, it was $51.2 million, not much less than what Oskar Blues Brewery and Harpoon Brewery together sold in IRI-tracked chain retail. Even 1% of that long-tail market is worth millions of dollars.
ABI seems to be growing impatient with brands that aren’t capturing sizable shares of what’s left of the market while the biggest seltzer brands in the nation continue to dominate it. The top ten hard seltzer brands in chain retail, as tracked by IRI, accounted for 90.9 percent of the market this year and 90.7 percent last year. Given the class-action lawsuit and Travis Scott’s troubled reputation, the niche market for Cacti no longer seems to be worth the effort to establish a brand.
Instead, ABI is sticking with what it is familiar with: expansions of well-known brands. ABI watched the brand fall from a $58 million per year brand in 2018 to one that is on pace to barely hit $15 million this year in IRI-tracked chain retail after it spent a lot of money to buy Spiked Seltzer (now called Bon & Viv) in 2016, and further spent roughly $5 million on a Super Bowl commercial for the brand in 2019. Bud Light Hard Seltzer, Bud Light Platinum Hard Seltzer, and Michelob ULTRA Organic Seltzer are line extensions that ABI introduced to diversify its portfolio in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Bon & Viv and Natty Light Hard Seltzer are still produced by the beverage firm, but like Cacti, ABI is allowing them to take a backseat to other hard seltzer brands in the company’s portfolio.
Molson Coors Beverage Company, ABI’s main American rival, has made a comparable decision by grouping its seltzer products behind its top sellers. Coors Seltzer, which remains the nation’s 15th best-selling hard seltzer brand year to date, was discontinued by Molson Coors in July. Instead, the firm is focusing on Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, which is ranked eighth overall, and Vizzy, which is the U.S.’s fourth-ranked hard seltzer brand. Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, which made its debut in March, now commands 2.2 percent of the hard seltzer market in the United States thanks to recognition for its non-alcoholic sparkling water, which is available in all 50 states and has been expanding quickly for years.
As businesses struggle to determine which of their goods will be the lead horses, change comes quickly in the long tail of hard seltzer. Nine months ago, Cacti made news with a record-breaking launch that saw it sell out in tens of thousands of retailers. According to online beer publication Brewbound, Cacti sold more in its first week than any hard seltzer variety pack in ABI history. It is also said to have become one of the most-followed alcohol brands on social media in general, and ABI’s, thanks in part to Scott’s celebrity support. (ABI removed Cacti’s social media accounts afterwards.)
This is far more than a limited-edition product drop; it is a long-term collaborative effort for all stakeholders involved, ABI told Campaign US, a communications industry newspaper, in May.
Not being was not intended. The brilliance that Cacti once had was tempered by an unexpected tragedy and a class action lawsuit. The brand will be remembered as just another illustration of how ABI prioritizes brands with long-term equity and name recognition over those with truly novel innovation and, at least initially, high potential.