Viral Buzz, Empty Shelves: Inside Shiseido’s $310 Million Drunk Elephant Marketing Failure

In November 2025, Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido shocked investors by announcing a $310 million goodwill impairment in its US business . This one-time write-down – Shiseido's largest in years – instantly dragged the company's full-year forecast into the red, with a projected net loss of ¥52 billion for 2025 . The culprit behind this debacle was clear: the disappointing performance of Drunk Elephant, a trendy American skincare brand Shiseido had acquired amid much fanfare in 2019 businessoffashion.com. How did a once-"buzzworthy" beauty brand morph into such a liability? The answer lies in a perfect storm of viral marketing success and supply-chain failure that offers a cautionary tale for global marketers.