Maybelline is under fire again for hiring a bearded makeup artist to star in its latest ad — just weeks after the brand fielded calls for boycotts over tapping Dylan Mulvaney to promote its concealer.
Maybelline — the world’s largest cosmetics brand — posted an Amazon Prime Day advert, and it stars mustachioed, bearded and bald influencer Ryan Vita.
In the ad, Vita sports a full face of makeup and a beaded barette in his beard while applying bright pink shades of Maybellie’s “Super Stay” liquid lipstick.
He then blows a kiss, showing that no gloss has tranferred onto his hand.
In less than 24 hours since Maybelline shared the ad with its nearly 12 million Instagram followers, the video was viewed more than 1.2 million times.
The caption denotes that Vita — who has 49,000 followers and uses the pronouns “she/he/they” — is a Maybelline Partner, and nearly 2,000 comments show that many consumers aren’t pleased with the casting.
“This is unacceptable and disturbing,” one user wrote, while another commented: “Really don’t want to be seeing MEN doing makeup tutorials!!! Nonsense.”
“Unfollowing,” another commented, while others announced that they wouldn’t be buying Maybelline products any longer after seeing the video.
Over on Twitter, one response played on Maybelline’s catchprase, “maybe it’s Maybelline,” and said “maybe it’s NOT Maybelline.”
“Ah, yes. Nothing inspires me to buy makeup more than seeing it smudged on the face of a bearded man,” another tweeted.
The Post has reached out to Vita for comment.
Representatives for Maybelline and its corporate parent, L’Oreal, also did not immediately respond to noti.group’s request for comment.
The ad marks the second time so far this year that the drugstore makeup brand has come under fire for the influencers featured in its advertisements.
In March — shortly before Mulvaney’s disastrous partnership with Bud Light went live — the transgender social media star promoted Maybelline’s concealer with a post captioned with #MaybellinePartner.
In the video, Mulvaney was “getting glam for my Day 365 show,” a one-night-only live show that celebrated the 28-year-old’s 365th day of publicly identifying as a woman.
The post, which Mulvaney shared with her nearly 2 million followers on March 13, has since amassed more than 1.5 million views, and also spurred protests against Maybelline that could be likened to the wave of boycotts against Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light.
On Twitter, one user wrote in response at the time: “The latest fools to employ Dylan Mulvaney are make-up company Maybelline. Get woke, go broke.”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
