Alex Cooper's Unwell drinks brand set to close within two years of launch

August 24, 2026 · thedrum.com

Nestlé-backed Unwell, the functional drinks brand founded by podcaster Alex Cooper, is set to disappear from shelves later this year, according to reports cited by The Drum's Jono Wylie. The brand launched under two years ago and was sold primarily through Target. Cooper's broader Unwell media operation, built around her Call Her Daddy podcast, recently raised funding at a $500m valuation and says it reaches 70m women a month. Wylie notes the shutdown follows a pattern: Logan Paul and KSI's Prime has faded from its early peak, Pokimane's $28 Myna Cookies wound down after she stepped away from the business, and Liquid Death grew into a $1.4bn business before pausing international expansion, including in the UK, after struggling to repeat its US formula.

Media plans anchored on creator reach carry the same risk Wylie flags in Unwell's case: strong launch attention that, in his view, does not guarantee repeat purchase once the media spend stops. He calls this the Functional Trap, where brands stack claim after claim, hydration, focus, protein, energy, until the proposition means very little. Wylie frames the test for any creator launch as a single question: "Once I've got somebody's attention, have I built something they would actually miss?" That question matters as more brands lean on creator partnerships to compress go-to-market timelines that used to take years into weeks.