You Can Tell Which Way The Wind Blows…
When big cosmetic companies like Lauder subsidiary MAC start running ads like this, in which comedian Sandra Bernhardt refers to “thin-lipped Republican bitches”:
On the whole it’s a crap ad apart from that one outburst, but it was withdrawn immediately once the predictable howls came from those who immediately recognised themselves in Bernhardt’s description.
But I don’t think the withdrawal was due only to the right-wing bleating. Any canny advertising bod would know that an inflammatory internet ad would be immediately YouTubed, so any later withdrawal would be an empty gesture and I’m sure MAC’s advertising agency knew exactly what they were doing in making this ad and that they took that into account.
What’s odd is that MAC owners The Lauder family have long been out & proud Republicans. Take Ronald, for instance:
Lauder is the son of Est?e Lauder and Joseph Lauder, founders of Est?e Lauder Companies, and the younger brother of Leonard Lauder, chairman of the board of the Estee Lauder company. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and holds a Bachelors degree in International Business from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He studied at the University of Paris, and received a Certificate in International Business from the University of Brussels. He is married and has two children. Lauder started to work for the Estee Lauder Company in 1964. In 1984 he became a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy at the Pentagon. In 1986 Ronald Reagan named him as the US ambassador to Austria, a position he held until 1987. As a Republican, he made a bid to become the mayor of New York City in 1989. Lauder manages investments in real estate and media, such as Central European Media Enterprise and Israeli TV.
It’s interesting tp speculate whether this might be a testing of the zeitgeist for the massive, Republican-inclined Lauder cosmetics empire, and if so, whether it presages a general shift towards liberalism in the boardrooms of the US. Are we finally seeing a commercial backlash of sorts against the prevailing values of the administration ?
It maybe so, but at bottom it’s just another way of making a profit from womens’ insecurities, this time by dressing them up in politics .
[Thanks to Pandagon for the tip.]
Read more: Advertising, Marketing, MAC, Cosmetics, Make-up,Fashion, Beauty products, Sandra Bernhardt, Republicans
