Roger and Eve: How Maybelline Coded Lip Gloss Advertisements to Highlight Romantic and Sexual Appeal

In the 1980s, Maybelline produced a series of advertisements for their lip glosses Kissing Potion, Kissing Slicks, and Mini Kissing Stick. The two advertisements I will focus on were published in 1981 (Kissing Potion) and 1980 (Kissing Slicks).

The first (Kissing Potion) is a roll-on style lip gloss, whose ad contains a message targeted towards teenage girls.

Portions of the ad which represent this audience include the title “Promise Roger your strawberry kisses,” the photo of the teenage boy with a football (implying a high school football player), and the innocence of the model’s appearance, pose, and facial expression.

In opposition to the Kissing Potion ad is the “Forbidden Fruits” Kissing Slicks ad. This “Forbidden Fruits” image also has a target audience of teenage girls, but could additionally venture into the range of 18-25 year-olds.

The model has a more alluring pose and facial expression, wearing a shirt explicitly relaying the tone of this advertisement: “I’m not as innocent as I seem.” She is surrounded by fresh fruit, holding grapes in one hand and a lip gloss applicator in the other.

Through careful adjectives/taglines, creative direction of the model, and themed visual components, Maybelline exploits the ideas of innocent romance and female temptation to convince consumers that their products will boost consumers’ romantic/sex appeal.