Madonna is the new model for Hollywood's most famous make-up company. EMMA MOORE reports on how Max Factor persuaded the material girl to sell lipstick
Estee Lauder may have Elizabeth Hurley, L'Oreal might have Melanie Griffith and Jennifer Lopez, but the American cosmetics company Max Factor has outdone them all by signing up the most famous woman in the world to front its new campaign. From the end of this week, Madonna - pop star, actress, fashion icon and mother - will add model to her CV when she appears in a series of television and print adverts for Max Factor's new Gold line of lipsticks and foundation.
The glamorous campaign will have the unmistakable Madonna mark on it - the singer insisted on using the director Alek Keshishian, who made the film In Bed With Madonna, the make-up artist Sarah Monzani, who created her look for Evita, as well as her favourite hairstylist, Luigi Murenu, responsible for her "fallen angel" curls in the Ray of Light video. She also requested that her favourite designers, such as Versace and Philip Treacy, create the wardrobe.
"I think people will see Madonna as they have never seen her before," says Ann Francke, the company's marketing director, who was present at the filming in Los Angeles. "There was a magical atmosphere on the set. There was a lot of joking around - when the make-up artist forgot her lines, Madonna would improvise and have us all in stitches. She really showed a capacity to laugh at herself."
She may be able to send herself up behind the scenes, but she takes her public image very seriously. Even snapshots from the set had to be sent to her for approval before they were released. Of 26, we were handed three.
"It's not about control," says Francke, indulgently, when I question the star's temperament. "We trust her judgments. She is the architect of her looks. She has a very strong sense of identity."
While the pictures for the print campaign feature Madonna as a modern-day Rita Hayworth, the television commercial re-creates a film set. Madonna plays herself - the consummate star - arriving on set and interacting with the crew, in particular her make-up artist. The pressure is on to get her lipstick just so - Madonna has spotted Raoul Bova, a gorgeous Italian actor, who, when the camera starts rolling, she will have to kiss. Of course, the Gold line lippy sorts her out, and she is able to kiss with confidence.
Although it seems strange that Madonna would want to appear in an advert - she's not exactly hard up, nor is she in need of the publicity - the singer said last week: "I am very excited to be a part of the Max Factor family and look forward to a golden future with them." The reason they managed to persuade her - hefty amounts of money aside - is that the company's roots have always been firmly in film.
From the start of the century, Max Factor's cosmetics have been linked to the most celebrated beauties of the time. A Russian hair goods specialist and cosmetician, Factor began his make-up business soon after settling in Los Angeles in 1909. Horrified by the sight of film actors caked in heavy, shiny greasepaint designed for the stage, he created the first-ever make-up for film. Before Factor, Rudolph Valentino, for example, had always suffered a ghostly pallor in his movies, but soon he was able to wear a colour that suited his darker skin tone. And with Factor's skilful artistry, actresses such as Greta Garbo and Gloria Swanson became goddesses and began demanding that he create a make-up that would give them off-screen glamour, too.
Ever since, a bevy of beauties including Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor have endorsed his products. Lana Turner was the face who launched Pan Cake, a make-up base in 1935, and Rita Hayworth launched the first long-lasting lipsticks. And right up to the 1970s, it was publicity images of Factor with the stars that seduced women, hungry for a piece of film-star allure, to embrace the brand that became known as the make-up of make-up artists.
Recently, however, the company had sought to link itself with the fashion world through collaborations with fashion designers such as Treacy and Julien Macdonald, but now, responding to the recent merging of the fashion set with the Hollywood one, Max Factor is returning to its roots.
"We wanted to take the brand forward while going back to what we are all about - supreme glamour," says Francke. "There was only one woman able to carry that message into the 21st century."
"Madonna and Max Factor go hand in hand," agrees Monzani. "She's a star, and he made up all the stars in his time."
Madonna is also known as a chameleon, constantly redefining her image - from scruffy punk to Marilyn Monroe clone in the 1980s, from earth mother to geisha in the 1990s. Her biggest tool in these transformations, apart from clothes, has always been make-up. It's this that makes her the best ambassador a make-up brand could hope for.
Even her age was never considered a hindrance."Madonna is living proof that life and glamour don't end at 40. The endorsement is a stronger statement coming from someone with maturity, gravitas and the life experience to back it up," says Francke.
"The definition of glamour is no longer age-bound." Times have moved on since Isabella Rossellini was ousted from Lancôme's campaigns for being too old. The 40-year-old material girl has brought a ray of light to a 90-year-old make-up company.
Copyright 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times
Newspapers' standard terms and conditions. To inquire about a licence
to reproduce material from The Sunday Times, visit the Syndication
website.
Back