MAC Cosmetics is, without a doubt, one of the beauty industry’s original corporate social responsibility (CSR) trailblazers, with its charitable initiative Viva Glam still going strong 31 years after its initial release.
The scheme, which donates 100% of sales from its Viva Glam lipsticks and lip glosses franchise to an array of grassroots equal rights causes worldwide – has raised more than US$535m since its inception in 1994.
It is a mighty philanthropic feat for the Estée Lauder Companies-owned make-up brand, and to think it all stemmed from the creation of a single lipstick, Viva Glam I, is astounding.
The shade, known today as Viva Heart, remains a bestseller, despite the franchise having launched more shades of Viva Glam lipsticks and glosses since.
An array of celebrity-endorsed campaigns over the years have also helped to drive increased support for the initiative, featuring “outspoken” A-listers such as Elton John, Pamela Anderson, Lady Gaga and Rihanna.
Aïda Moudachirou-Rébois, Senior VP, General Manager, for MAC Cosmetics tells Cosmetics Business how the brand’s Viva Glam lipstick came to be a CSR-focused industry disruptor that has stood the test of time in our ‘Untold Story’ series.
How MAC Cosmetics’ Viva Glam came to be…
The first Viva Glam lipstick was launched in 1994 by MAC founders Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo, who saw the HIV/AIDS epidemic affecting their community in Toronto, US, and wanted to raise awareness and funds for the cause.
The make-up company was ten years old at the time but had built a strong reputation through word-of-mouth recommendations (no real advertising) as a creator of high-performance lipsticks.
The duo decided to take advantage of this ‘reputation’ and created brownish blue-red lipstick Viva Glam I, announcing that 100% of the selling price would be donated to charitable organisations to help people living with HIV/AIDS.
[Toskan and Angelo] really put their money where their mouth is about the problem, giving it to people who needed it most
“At the time [the mid-1990s], not everybody was speaking about the crisis, and I think governments were sort of shying away from it, so a lot of people who were dealing with HIV/AIDS felt they were stigmatised,” says Moudachirou-Rébois.
The lipstick was aptly named Viva Glam I, combining ‘viva’, which means ‘life’, with ‘glam’, which was the DNA of the MAC Cosmetics brand.
The brownish blue-red hue was picked
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