Why are there really so many celebrities turning to vegan diets?
More and more celebrities are adopting vegan diets than ever before. In fact, as the trillion-dollar meat industry continues to decline, many celebrities are betting on plants and moving their investments to plant based companies. Suffice it to say that becoming vegan is the guiding hand that’s leading a ton of celebrities to more lucrative opportunities.
According to CNN Impossible Foods raised $750 million in a round of funding backed by celebrity investors including Bill Gates, Jay-Z, Ruby Rose, will.i.am, Serena Williams, Katy Perry, Jaden Smith, Trevor Noah, Zedd, Jay Brown, Kirk Cousins, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, “Harold & Kumar” star Kal Penn, Questlove, and “Everybody Loves Raymond” producer Phil Rosenthal.
Then the launch of Impossible 2.0 made 2019 an incredible year for Impossible Foods and it’s celebrity investors. Between 2018 and 2019 the number of Americans who considered purchasing Impossible Foods products nearly doubled, rising from 8 to 15 percent. Today, Impossible Foods continues to gain popularity through partnerships with Burger King, Applebee’s, Cheesecake Factory Inc., Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc., White Castle, Little Caesar Enterprises Inc., Wegmans Food Markets and others. IDTechEx report, “Plant-based and Cultured Meat 2020-2030,” projects the global market for “novel meat substitutes” to top $30 billion by 2030. With the recent launch of Impossible Pork and Impossible Sausage, Impossible Foods will likely garner a substantial percentage of that economic pie.
According to CNBC, rival Beyond Meat Inc has seen the value of its shares more than triple since going public last May, and is now worth around $4.8 billion. Beyond Meat celebrity investors and ambassadors include Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Chastain, athletes Kyrie Irving, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Paul, DeAndre Hopkins, Victor Oladipo, Lindsey Vonn, DeAndre Jordan, JaVale McGee, Harrison Barnes, Malcolm Jenkins, Derrick and Charity Morgan, Alex Honnold, Shaun White and Luke Walton. Others include J.J. Redick, Tony Gonzales, Thomas Middleditch, David Wright, Eric Bledsoe, Maya Moore, Tia Blanco, April Ross and Maggie Vessey, as well as forward-thinking celebrities Snoop Dogg, Common, Liza Koshy and Nicole Williams.
This stellar celebrity line-up contributed to Beyond Meat shares rising as much as 192 percent from its IPO price of $25 share. Time reported, “The shares, which opened at $46, closed their first day of trading Thursday up 163 percent to $65.75 in New York, giving the company a market value of about $3.8 billion.” Then, Beyond Meat suffered and epic market crash that followed in October. Nonetheless, economists are still seeing uptrends for Beyond Meat in the economic crystal ball. In fact, Market Watch agrees predicting that it will most likely happen once “investors remember why this much-hyped stock did so well in its first days of trading.” Market Watch goes on to predict that, “Beyond Meat is one of the rare opportunities out there for a higher-risk but also higher-reward growth play.” That said, it seems that plant based meat isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Consequently, celebrity partnerships have helped plant based brands appeal to the masses. Now veganism has gone mainstream. Additionally, since gaining celebrity backing the persona of companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat has greatly improved. They’ve transitioned from being meat alternative companies having a quiet fandom among vegans and vegetarians to being multi-billion dollar, international conglomerates with a worldwide demand for plant based meat alternatives. Seems that the investment of celebrities-turned-vegans has more than paid off. Only time will tell if celebrities-turned-vegans is just a market trend or a transition into a more eco-conscious reality.
What’s your opinion? Why do you think there are really so many celebrities turning to vegan diets?
