In the past few months CoverGirl has appointed five new ambassadors, including Insecure’s Issa Rae and 69-year-old Maye Musk, the brand’s oldest-ever ambassador. Now, as the beauty giant continues to rebrand, they’ve decided to drop their 90s slogan “Easy, Breezy, Beautiful” and replace it with something new: “I Am What I Make Up.”
The updated tagline was announced this week by way of a campaign video, starring the brand’s diverse roster of ambassadors. Issa Rae and Maye Musk appear alongside Katy Perry, Ayesha Curry, fitness guru Massy Arias and professional motorcycle racer Shelina Moreda.
CoverGirl say the campaign is meant to reflect widespread changes within the beauty industry. “Traditionally in the category, it has always been women being transformed for superficial, vain reasons,” said Katy Alonzo from the brand’s advertising agency, Droga5, “In a lot of ways, it was because the category had been stuck in a male gaze. So we wanted to rewrite a lot of those conventions… We wanted to do, through the talent we chose to work with, is honour who they are, their stories, and the context that beauty plays within their lives,” she told Fast Company.
The spot also pays homage to the work of Toni Morrison, the American novelist whose work brings to light issues of race and identity. The campaign opens with a quote from her 1992 novel Jazz, “What’s the world for you if you can’t make it up the way you want it?”