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On Tuesday, Maybelline New York launched a new campaign fronted by Miley Cyrus and a revamped slogan that immediately earned comparisons to the Succession writers room. In an effort to modernize its famous slogan, “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline,” the cosmetics giant has made two changes. First, he replaced “she” with “we are” in order to be more inclusive. Everything is going well so far. The brand also added dots after each “maybe,” so the tagline now reads: “Maybe. We were born with it. Maybe. It’s Maybelline.” Are you coming back?
Perhaps it would be easier if Sandrine Jolly, the company’s global brand president, explained it. Talk to WWD about the update, she said the old jingle “created ambiguity – it was more of a question.”
“‘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,” Jolly continued. “We believe the evolution of this brand statement is in line with what women need today.” My biggest takeaway from all of this is this: maybe. They should have left the slogan alone.
The awkward new phrase, which sounds like a woman being interrupted, was not well received. An excellent comment on WWD The Instagram feed announcing the change suggests the company should “go back to the drawing board.” Others have speculated that it could be angry bait or AI generated or – more realistically – simply the most crystallized example of what happens when 20 stakeholders in a company work on a single idea.
Maybelline debuted its signature slogan in a 1991 commercial for Finish Matte, starring Christy Turlington. The line has since been read by dozens of Maybelline ambassadors over the years, from Adriana Lima and Gigi Hadid to, now, Cyrus. In addition to the campaign, Cyrus also “reinvented” the brand’s jingle: “Maybe It’s Maybelline” is now a disco anthem that Cyrus wrote with her team. She didn’t incorporate the new catchphrase syntax into the chorus, probably because it seemed too awkward. It does, however, contain lyrics like “They can’t stop looking / They’re looking so long / They can’t stop playing a song, oh yeah.” Is this what women want? Maybe!
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