“Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline,” is a marketing slogan makeup brand, Maybelline, has been using since 1991. Due to its catchiness and widespread use in TV advertisements throughout the early 21st century, it has become a very well known phrase. However, stopping to think about the implications of the phrase reveals deep rooted problems within the beauty industry. The saying implies that the women in question are either naturally beautiful, or their beauty comes from their makeup products. As the advertisements portray beautiful airbrushed women, it leads those watching to believe their natural beauty is not enough, and pushes them to purchase the company’s products. Although a good marketing strategy, this advertisement could lead girls to form issues with their self image, for they are constantly reinforced that they are not “born with” the models unachievable beauty and therefore they must purchase more makeup products.
This slogan is only one example of the damage the beauty industry can do to girls’ self esteem. And as brands such as Maybelline continuously create new products in order to “fix” our appearance, girls begin to feel a need to fix these new problems the brand created. For example, no one thought there was a need to create the appearance of a smaller nose with contour until Kim Kardashian introduced the world to said makeup strategy. The beauty industry is constantly finding new problems with our appearance and by using slogans such as, “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline,” enforces the idea that every time a new problem is created we must buy the product in order to become beautiful. Since according to them none of us are “Born with” the beauty we are constantly searching for.
