by Lilinaz Evans

You may remember CoverGirl from our recent Capitol Cuties campaign, but today I wanted to talk about Covergirl’s newest ad campaign #GirlsCan. Here, in the campaign video there is a wealth of strong, high powered women–many of whom are self- proclaimed feminists, like Ellen DeGeneres or Janelle Monae, and all of whom are CoverGirl models. They start by repeating all the things that girls are told they can’t do on a daily basis: Girls can’t be strong; girls can’t be funny; girls can’t play sports. The women then give an empowering speech about all the things “girls can” do. They tell their own stories of what girls can do and how they overcame people telling them what girls can’t do. The video ends by reminding the viewers (or Covergirls) that the way to overcome all these rules society sets for girls (like, I don’t know… unattainable beauty norms maybe?) is to be easy, breezy and beautiful, obviously by buying CoverGirl makeup.

On the surface this ad is okay. There are empowering messages for girls that they can do anything (as long as they buy CoverGirl makeup) and be themselves (as long as that self is easy, breezy and beautiful), and they even made a stab at inclusivity by having two African American women and one Latina woman. There is a theme of rebellion and women challenging what they are told they can and cannot do. They tell us we can do whatever we want, and who are we to argue with Ellen DeGeneres?

But that’s just the surface. Let’s have a look at some other campaigns by CoverGirl, shall we?

SPARK recently protested a CoverGirl campaign called Capitol Collection, which was all about getting girls to dress up as dwellers of the violently oppressive “Capitolist” state.  Here CoverGirl, I assume, were banking on the fact that us easy, breezy, beautiful CoverGirls were too distracted by the pretty colours to realise CoverGirl was trying to frame a regime that slaughters children for entertainment, runs on the fruits of slave labour and lets people starve to death as something to aspire to. Pretty colours are great, and who doesn’t love dressing up as your favourite film character? But it speaks volumes of just what CoverGirl thinks of its target market of teenage girls that they think we want to look like vain child murders.

To me, the message CoverGirl is sending is perfectly clear. It is not “#GirlsCan do anything,” but it isn’t “Teen girls want to look like vapid murderers” either. The message is “I want your money and I am prepared to say and sell anything to get it.”

CoverGirl is not unique in the slightest by sending this message. Any company with something to sell wants you to buy it, and the majority are prepared to do anything in the name of marketing. The SPARKteam recently talked about the Aerie ad campaign, whose ‘body positive’ gimmick was to leave their models untouched-up. It created quite a stir, which was of course its aim, but what did it actually do for media’s unattainable standards of beauty? Not much: their untouched models were majority thin, pale and without a single physical blemish; the standards of beauty they promoted were not any less attainable. If it boosts sales, a company will say or do almost anything.

CoverGirl, as a company, is not interested in girl’s empowerment. That doesn’t mean that their campaigns (or the people who run them) don’t have good effects—some of the people behind these campaigns may even be feminists. But CoverGirl is not a person with thoughts and feelings. CoverGirl as company doesn’t care about girls being plagued by unhealthy eating and body dysmorphia because of unattainable beauty standards; CoverGirl as a company does not care how many girls don’t go into STEM subjects because of the anti-female environment; CoverGirl as a company doesn’t care how many girls end up realising their dreams to be a comedian despite being told “girls can’t be funny.” CoverGirl is a company, not a person—its first and last concern is what impacts their sales.

I bet some of you reading this right now are thinking “they aren’t great but isn’t this better than some of the other, more awful adverts out there?” Well, yes, on the surface they are better than the average beer ad, but CoverGirl is still only telling girls they can be funny, pretty and all the rest on the condition they buy CoverGirl makeup to make them “easy, breezy and beautiful.”

CoverGirl is a company whose only interest is making money so they have used girl’s empowerment as a marketing gimmick. They are using empowerment as a way of getting talked about and getting their brand out there.  It’s unusual for a company that generally profits from girls’ low self-esteem to talk about girls’ empowerment, so when they do, they get talked about–not just in the mainstream media but also in publications like SPARK or Mumsnet. They’re reaching new audiences, which is their ultimate goal. Even this post is raising awareness about the CoverGirl brand! But if this #GirlsCan marketing does nothing for sales, you can bet they are going to drop it pretty sharpish.