Migros dropped its biggest TikTok star and his own product over one video

Joung Gustav is Switzerland's biggest TikTok entertainer: over 5.5 million followers for music lip-syncs and 'Stadi-Szene' street interviews shot at the Stadelhofen station. Migros, the country's largest retailer, hired him to front videos for its M-Budget own-brand in exactly that format. The relationship went deeper than advertising: Gustav is the founder and co-owner of Vyte, a vitamin water that Migros carried on its shelves.

In February 2026 he posted a four-minute video on 'Gustavredet', a second channel with 5,700 followers, attacking Swiss asylum policy — costs, crime figures, and a warning that the Swiss would become a minority in their own country — using argumentation lifted from right-wing populist talking points. Entertainment fans were blindsided; Swiss communication experts called it populism stripped of journalistic context.

Migros spoke with him, then cut twice: the advertising partnership ended, and Vyte was delisted. 'We had to conclude that further cooperation was not compatible with our canon of values, and therefore ended the cooperation,' the retailer said. The youth wing of Switzerland's right-wing populist party called it 'the cancel politics of woke Migros' and called for a boycott; Gustav deleted his old campaign videos and accused Migros of only tolerating left-leaning voices.