Maybe it’s a new slogan. Maybe it’s more punctuation. Maybelline’s 35-year-old slogan gets an update | Make up

Alyx, I heard that a certain makeup brand updated their slogan. Why is this so important?

The jingle that has stuck in the minds of women around the world since its debut under Christy Turlington in 1991, “Maybe She’s Born With It, Maybe It’s Maybelline”, has received what has been described as a “modernization”. In a new campaign starring Miley Cyrus, the “she is” will be replaced with “we are,” which both changes the viewer’s perspective to something a little more self-directed and makes it more inclusive. But it’s a change in punctuation that raises eyebrows.

Replacing “her” with “we” seems to be a positive step. So what is it turn heads?

They replaced a single comma with a pair of periods. The slogan now is: “Maybe. We were born with it. Maybe. It’s Maybelline.”

Maybe. It is. A little. Confusing?

Not according to Sandrine Jolly, global brand president of Maybelline New York. She told WWD that before, “the jingle created ambiguity – it was more of a question.” Now: “‘Maybe’ is no longer a doubt or hesitation. ‘Maybe,’ period, is a statement of possibility, and that’s what we want to be for women.”

A statement of possibility?

Maybe. That’s what you say when you’re too polite to say no.

What has been the public reaction so far?

“Run to the comments to find the other Virgos with eye twitches at these inappropriate times,” according to a note on WWD’s Instgram post about the change. Or, more bluntly: “Terrible grammatical choices.”

Was it written by AI? Or is this proof that it is 100% man-made?

I think this could have been written by the Succession writers. It’s very “We’re here for you.”

Maybe.