Ellen as Cover Girl Spokesperson

January 11, 2009

I bet CG will sell a ton of whatever makeup Ellen is promoting because they picked a real person and didn’t Photoshop away all her wrinkles. The brand will be noticed for celebrating diversity in women, just as they were with Queen Latifah. The consumer appeal will be that these are real women, not plastic girls, and they’ve teamed up with Olay to put an anti-aging spin on it.

She’s 50 years old. She’s worth $65million.

From the Ellen show.

This is the link to the CG ad, not reproduced here to protect copyright. There, you’ll find the videos for the photo shoot. I wonder if I could afford those pants and shoes.

Why is she always in black or black&white? Is it her choice, do you think? Neither one do anything to light up her natural beauty. Her incredible eyes don’t shine through and her skin looks tired. Why frosted pink lips? Surely, the makeup artists could have come up with something more interesting.

Real women needed

The fashion and cosmetics industries desperately need to find women of the Over 40 group to inspire real clothes and makeup. Look at how Michelle Obama dresses. She doesn’t spend a ridiculous (a disgraceful) fortune on what she wears.

You can’t tell me that a woman whose ensembles cost $50,000 and up has the slightest idea about the life of the everyday family. Maybe Mrs. Obama doesn’t either but at least she looks great, she has a unique style, her shoes make sense, and she doesn’t buy into what any designer tries to put us all in. She could look at pictures of herself in 10 or 20 years and not cringe. These women really do represent how we look and how we want to look.

Why do women decide that designers somehow have flawless vision? What makes their taste so sacrosanct?

Look around and suddenly you see women in this,

Stiletto at Amazon, linked to source if you wish to buy.

or this,

Pants from Amazon. Click image to find source.

In need of real muses

We look dumb dumb dumb. Weak. Suckers. The marketing department cranks up its imagination and they rake in cash. The media machine doesn’t address the needs of regular women over 40 because it doesn’t know how. It still thinks we all have the body and budget of Diane Keaton. It is dawning on them that we have interests beyond those of Goldie Hawn but they’re not sure what they are.

Ellen’s style of dress may be masculine but at least it’s real. There’s nothing she wears that I wouldn’t like to own (in the right colors, in case I haven’t said it often enough). She doesn’t wobble when she walks. She could even dance to faster music, like You Can’t Stop The Beat from Hairspray, or Avril Lavigne’s I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend, which I think would be a good departure from the present tempo, and she wouldn’t risk falling over and needing help to get up.

I hope they’ll paint Ellen as a real woman. They’re almost forced to because she’d look too goofy in sparkle and cartoon eyelashes. They couldn’t get away with it. I’m hoping to see what their makeup artists can do with neutral. Because her coloring is so incredibly soft, they can’t overpaint her. Even here, she looks interesting, if a little metallic.

Photo Michael Thompson. Ellen on W, February 2008.

Photo Michael Thompson. Ellen on W, February 2007.

She is funny. Like all people who have a certain exterior face, her private side is probably fairly serious, maybe even overly reflective. People who are always up and funny on the outside are often the opposite on the inside. Here, she is just plain funny, from YouTube.

One bone to pick

Now why is she selling for a company that animal tests? Why? It is so outdated. It also feels a little two-faced in light of her support of animal charities. Her tell-it-like-it-is honesty isn’t really her biggest selling point. Her funny sense of timing and dry, throwaway remarks are, like Bill Cosby. She’s incredibly likable but this feels deceitful.

Among the charities various celebs support, this page shows Ellen’s causes.

There are more Ellens in reality. There are no Julias. That’s the beauty of the woman. She’s all of us.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Happiness, Makeup

Comments

One Response to “Ellen as Cover Girl Spokesperson”

Cathy on April 12th, 2010 10:41 pm

Ellen as spokeswoman? How will an outspoken lesbian sell more product? I know many heterosexual women that do not cover their age lines or correct them & their offspring will grow up to emulate them, too. My research indicates that lesbian “couples” have few offspring compared to heterosexual couples. I do not understand how this will benefit Cover Girl, but I am no longer buying their products.