Some endorsements make sense. Then there’s Sydney Sweeney’s bathwater. Literally. 5,000 bars of Dr Squatch soap laced with her post-soak essence? Sold out in minutes. Meanwhile, Wes Anderson designed a Montblanc pen with a matching green ruler and exactly 1,969 units because of course he did. Welcome to the golden age of celebs selling stuff no one asked for but everyone remembers. Below: a list of celebrity x brand crossovers that confused, amused and sometimes… worked. 

The Wildest Brand Collabs in Recent Memory

Travis Scott × McDonald’s  

A Quarter Pounder with bacon, lettuce and barbecue sauce, rebranded as “The Travis Scott.” Demand was so absurd, McDonald’s ran out of burgers. Scott reportedly made around $20 million from the collab—probably more than he’s made from music in years. And yes, there was merch. Lots of it. 

Pedro Pascal × Merge Mansion Mobile Game 

Pascal goes full detective noir for a mobile puzzle game about a sweet grandma who may or may not be hiding bodies in her garden. The campaign had better acting, writing and lighting than most Netflix thrillers. Confusing? Absolutely. Effective? No notes. 

Penélope Cruz × Nintendo DS 

Cruz bets her sister she can beat her at New Super Mario Bros 2, loses, and dons a fake moustache and overalls. No soft-glam lighting. Just a mega-celebrity yelling at a screen like the rest of us. Gaming’s never felt cuter—or weirder. 

Kim Kardashian × Charmin Public Toilets  

Charmin launched luxury loos in Times Square and tapped Kim K to cut the ribbon. She showed up, posed with giant toilet roll mascots and smiled through it. It was the influencer-to-toilet pipeline in action, long before content houses made bathroom selfies a genre. 

Snoop Dogg × Hot Pockets  

Snoop rewrote “Drop It Like It’s Hot” into “Pocket Like It’s Hot.” He wore silk pyjamas, rapped about melted cheese, and made a freezer snack sound seductive. It shouldn't have worked. It absolutely did. 

will.i.am × XUPERMASK by Honeywell  

During peak Covid, will.i.am dropped a $299 “smart” mask with air filters, LED lights, Bluetooth and noise-cancelling headphones. It looked like Daft Punk designed PPE for the Met Gala. Naturally, it sold out. 

Ranveer Singh × Ching’s Secret  

Ranveer plays a Schezwan-slinging action hero in a noodle ad directed by Rohit Shetty. Explosions, bad guys, soy sauce. It’s chaos, it’s camp, it’s cult. And it still gets memed almost a decade later. 

Michael Cera × CeraVe 

Cera lurked around pharmacies whispering “I am CeraVe” and handing out moisturiser. Internet sleuths went into meltdown until the Super Bowl ad aired, revealing it was all part of a dermatology-troll campaign. Bizarre, genius, oddly moisturising. 

Bob Dylan × Victoria’s Secret  

Yes, that Bob Dylan. Yes, that Victoria’s Secret. He strolls through a European palace as angels swirl around him to the sound of “Love Sick.” He looks vaguely confused. So did everyone else. 

Lady Gaga × Polaroid 

Named “Creative Director” for Polaroid, Gaga unveiled camera-glasses and a pocket printer in full latex regalia at CES. It was part fashion stunt, part tech PR—and somehow still more memorable than anything Apple launched that year. 

Pierce Brosnan × Pan Bahar  

Brosnan fronted an ad for a paan masala brand, looking very much like Bond with a brass spittoon. When backlash hit over the cancer warnings, he claimed he thought he was endorsing a breath freshener. His moustache stayed dignified. The internet never forgot. 

Justin Bieber × OPI Nail Polish  

Bieber never wore it, but his glittery One Less Lonely Girl polish line sold out across 3,000 Walmarts anyway. The collection raised money for charity and gave tween girls a socially acceptable reason to paint their nails purple for Bieber.