Another day, another celebrity signing. We just heard that the divine Ms. Witherspoon has autographed the dotted line for Avon. She’s now the mega brand’s global ambassador and honorary chairman of the Avon Foundation, which addresses issues like breast cancer, domestic violence and emergency relief. And as a famously successful working mum, she’s the ‘inspirational’ commander in chief to the Avon lady army too. Sounds important. Sounds expensive (it’s not like Oscar winners, especially hot Oscar winners, go cheap). But Avon and Witherspoon are keeping the number of zeros on her cheque to themselves.
Reese’s star power is all part of Avon’s evolution from being the brand you keep at the back of your cupboard behind the sexy stuff to being proudly covetable. I’ll put up my hand and say that Avon’s been in my beauty bag since the day Mum first let me put some of her Skin-So-Soft Bath Oil in the tub with my rubber duck. I’m pretty sure my first-ever fragrance (circa 6th birthday) was Pearls & Lace and when I graduated to pimples, the Clearskin routine was the first thing I tried. And now that I know a little something about skincare ingredients, am compulsive about colour and am super fussy about beauty buys, there’s still always something in the Avon catalogue I want.
Now they’ve got one of my/your/the whole world’s favourite celebs too. Avon would have to call that a coup, but Reese is calling it philanthropy: “I am truly impressed by how Avon has been able to effect real change in the communities… and by how committed the company is to providing economic and personal fulfilment to women all over the world. I feel a great responsibility in my own life to give back to society”. All that free make-up is just a perk…
