“Maybe it’s Maybelline” is one of the advertising world’s most iconic slogans. The phrase, and its corresponding jingle, first debuted in 1991. The brand brought it back last year in a campaign featuring previous brand ambassadors Gigi Hadid, Storm Reid, Peggy Gou and Shay Mitchell.
On Wednesday, Maybelline announced mega pop star Miley Cyrus as its new global face. In the new campaign, Cyrus, and her instantly recognizable voice, puts a new spin on the drugstore makeup brand’s iconic jingle. Cyrus has a multi-year partnership with the brand — a Maybelline representative confirmed that she will be the face of major upcoming launches, including a new color launch, as well as the brand’s viral mascara phenomenon, Sky High.
“We really wanted to take this moment to reimagine the jingle in a way that bridged this iconic, nostalgic message everybody knew Maybelline for, but reimagined it, giving it a fresh voice, connecting Maybelline’s heritage with today’s culture,” said Yasmin Dastmalchi, president of Maybelline U.S.
It makes sense for the brand to lean back on its famous tagline. Consumer intelligence platform Talkwalker found that, 34 years after its debut, the slogan ranked as the third most-mentioned on social media platforms in the past year, generating about 16,000 mentions — behind only Nike’s “Just Do It” and McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it.”
The announcement of Cyrus’s role marks the official start of a 360-degree brand campaign, which also includes content from mega-creators including Manny MUA (3.9 million Instagram followers), Sai de Silva (613,000 Instagram followers), Isabel Clancy (1.3 million Instagram followers) and I Luv Sarahii (6.5 million Instagram followers). Some social posts started to roll out in the days before as the brand teased the campaign and the nostalgia associated with the brand.
“When I look at the brand, it’s a cultural icon, right? It’s 110 years of cultural impact. Celebrities have been a part of its history, in terms of building that legacy, that credibility and that inspiration,” said Dastmalchi. As for bringing Cyrus into the fold, she said, “Miley is a global icon. She’s creative, she’s confident, she’s authentic, and she influences culture. She’s truly self expressive. [All of] that aligns with Maybelline’s values. She brings a fresh lens to the brand. And, for us, she’s someone who resonates across generations.”
Interestingly, according to Samantha Steinberger, avp and head of brand engagement at Maybelline, when the brand first sought a new ambassador, it was not tied to finding a singer for the jingle — Cyrus’s vocal abilities wound up being an added bonus. “We have an amazing clip of her where she says, ‘You guys just asked me to write three words and I wrote a whole song,'” referencing the lyrics she wrote for an updated version of the jingle. The lyrics were still being kept confidential at press time.
Last weekend, the brand hosted ice cream trucks in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Miami, where consumers could receive free products, in addition to ice cream, and sign up to be notified when big news hits on September 24. Some have already made guesses on Instagram that the brand is working with Cyrus — Steinberger noted that paparazzi shot content of the brand’s big NYC shoot with the singer in April. “We’ll be teasing some images with her lips, or things like that, where a lot of people can put things together [and make a guess]. It’s really fun to watch because we obviously wanted that to happen — but you never know if it’s going to,” Steinberger told Glossy.
Between September 29 and October 27, Maybelline will invite its community to enter a contest in which they can create their own renditions of the jingle. The brand has captured content of Cyrus encouraging fans to join.
