Faze Clan, which as recently as last year seemed an unstoppable cultural force for the genre of dudes who both play video games and aspire to own lambos, is in trouble. As we’ve reported, the clan’s decision to go public has been a disaster, with their shares now practically worthless, but as bad as things were last month, this week they’re getting worse.
Last year Faze’s star seemed to be shining brightest when Snoop Dogg walked onto the stage during the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show wearing the clan’s gold chain around his neck. The veteran rapper had been convinced to lend his name to Faze’s marketing efforts after they offered him a spot on their company’s board of directors, $1.9 million in stock and then a further $248,000 in shares to his son and “companies controlled by his spouse and his manager”.
Now, with Faze “effectively a penny stock”, things are looking bleaker. With those shares now worthless, Snoop Dogg has left the company, an SEC filing made earlier today revealed. As Dexerto report he resigned, “effectively immediately”, on March 29.
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Snoop’s departure isn’t just a PR hit, it also presents some logistical challenges for Faze’s marketing, who in addition to having to deal with losses of over $50 million for the year now have to scale back their social media boasts as well. As this excellent Forbes piece from 2022 recalls, one of Faze’s chief marketing strategies has been to combine the social media follower count of all their members—and celebrity signings—into a single figure. Last year, for example, they claimed a “total reach” of 526 million people, but almost 200 million of that number came from celebrity signings like Snoop, whose 20.9 million Twitter followers, 80.1 million Instagram followers and 26 million TikTok subscribers will now have to be removed from Faze’s calculations (which were inflated anyway, since they count total subs/followers, not allowing for one person to follow them across multiple platforms).
At time of publication Snoop, and his extensive social media following, was still listed as a member of Faze clan on the group’s website.
