Machine Gun Kelly, Jennifer Lopez, and Gal Gadot All Pop the Same $300 Bottle of Champagne That Has Appeared in Movies and Music Videos for Years
Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter and Beyoncé Knowles are regularly seen with champagne in the most curious places. For years, one could safely bet the iconic Cristal brand was filling their glasses. But their organic love for that high-end beverage quickly fell apart after an ill-fated interview. This led Jay-Z to throw his weight behind a completely different brand. And he brought the top end of the full spectrum of pop culture, including actors like Gal Gadot, along with him.
Jay-Z elevated Cristal to the heights of pop culture
The sudden boost in the profile of Armand de Brignac — also known as the ‘Ace of Spades’ champagne — traces back to a high-profile blunder in the luxury beverage world. Cristal, once ubiquitous in music videos, television shows, and film, became heavily associated with the hip-hop community. But in a 2006 Economist interview with a Cristal exec, the company’s official line was “we can’t forbid people from buying it” — the implication being that wasn’t their preferred clientele.
Jay-Z, who built his profile in the music business via RocNation, chose to get even instead of simply getting angry. Cristal’s fumble became Armand de Brignac’s massive gain. The rapper and business mogul threw his weight and investment dollars behind the ‘Ace of Spades.’ Cristal all but disappeared from pop culture spaces overnight.
Armand de Brignac champagne was featured in the Gal Gadot film ‘Red Notice’
Jay-Z and Beyoncé proved that associations within hip-hop can easily lead to brand elevation across all media. The pair resolved to boost awareness of the once-minor champagne brand from all corners at once. Their famously impressive gifts to celebrity friends — good enough that Reese Witherspoon still gushes over it years later — tend to include cases of Armand de Brignac’s best.
The brand’s found itself worked into product placement spots in films. In the 2021 Netflix film Red Notice, a scene where the script calls for a famous luxury champagne, the choice to drop the name felt completely natural. Films like 2018’s Overboard, 2019 comedy What Men Want, and the horror sci-fi mashup Prometheus back in 2012 also leveraged the brand. At this point, seeing that bottle with that iconic Ace of Spades emblazoned on the front acts as a visual shorthand for wealth.
For Jay-Z and Beyoncé, wealth is certainly a key word. CNN reports that they sold 50% of their stake in Armand de Brignac to luxury goods house LVMH. The $640 million sale boosts the power couple’s net worth to an estimated $1.9 billion. It works out well for the brand, which now taps into both celebrity-powered marketing and LVMH’s substantial experience with traditional luxury branding work.
Music videos continue to be a primary marketing platform for Armand de Brignac
With Jay-Z more focused on the bread-and-butter of product placement with Armand de Brignac, his approach in music videos should be more prevalent than ever. It all started with his 2006 music video Show Me What You Got. And the pace has been relentless from there, Page Six reports.
When Jay does a feature, he tends to nod toward his brand. One example? A sample he did on a 2018 Meek Mill track: “I’m 50 percent of D’Ussé and it’s debt-free, 100 percent of Ace of Spades, worth half a B.” Turns out what some may have read as an exaggerated brag was actually lowballing by about $140 million when it’s all said and done.
Machine Gun Kelly, Nicki Minaj, Ciara, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez music videos feature the iconic ‘Ace of Spades’ bottles. With more films and television appearances undoubtedly in the pipeline, Cristal’s slip-up seems more costly by the day.
