We realized that the thing that COVERGIRL has always stood for—acceptance—had become a controversial issue in America. So, in that increasingly tumultuous social and political climate, COVERGIRL signed 17-year-old makeup artist and social media influencer, James Charles, to be the first male COVERGIRL and the face of So Lashy! mascara.

To prove that COVERGIRL was really serious about equal opportunity beauty, we recruited a supporting cast of diverse, category-disrupting influencers: Nura Afia (A muslim-American beauty vlogger and first mass beauty ambassador to wear a Hijab), Amy Pham (DJ and lifestyle blogger), Chloe and Halle Bailey (Beyonce protégé’s and singers), as well as celebrities Sofia Vergara and Katy Perry to join James Charles in promoting beauty equality.

We knew we couldn’t change the world with a single ad campaign, but we believe that you can only change something if you can start a conversation about it.

In addition to our target audience being a social media devotee, nowhere was the American divide more prevalent than in social media. So, we decided to use it to seed acceptance in beauty equality instead.

In real-time, straight from the set of the So Lashy! campaign set, we recorded James Charles announcing himself as the first male COVERGIRL and uploaded to COVERGIRL owned social channels. As a part of the launch, we leveraged Katy Perry, a fellow Covergirl and the “Queen of the Internet” (she was the #1 most followed person on Twitter!) to amplify the James Charles news.

At over 2.4 billion impressions on the first day, the news of James Charles becoming the first male COVERGIRL spread like wildfire. Over the next few months, we followed the news with a TV spot, print ads, digital videos, makeup tutorials and even a Times Square takeover.

News of the first male Covergirl overtook the cultural conversation, with instant impact on the beauty landscape.

“COVERGIRL Redefines Role Models with Diversity, Inclusivity”

– Brandchannel

• Covergirl James Charles was in the top 5 trending topics on Twitter for 3 weeks straight, beating out the presidential election and the world series

• Appearing across controversial headlines and news segments in The New York Times, CNN, The NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and an appearance on The Ellen Show

• Featured in the style section of the NY Times in back-to-back weeks

• Increasing COVERGIRL social footprint by 2.5 million followers

• Becoming the best mascara launch in the last 3 years for COVERGIRL, 20 times bigger than the launch of any competitor in all of beauty

“Both women and men can rejoice: Makeup is no longer just a girl thing”

– The New York Times