Dear Lancome: STOP IT. Stop hiring actresses in their early 20s to represent your brand. Please. It’s a pain in the ass to look at Emma Watson and now Lily Collins and think, “Seriously, these are the brand ambassadors adult women want to see?” So, yes, Lily Collins just scored a major endorsement deal with Lancome. A few years ago it was Emma Watson, and at first I thought Lily was simply joining Emma as co-brand ambassador, but many sites are claiming that Emma has been pushed out and Lily has taken over the under-25 demographic. That’s gotta hurt for Emma – then again, her Lancome commercials were rather painful and they styled her Beiber haircut very poorly. Lancome announced their newest brand ambassador with a series of tweets:
Is it bad form to announce your newest brand ambassador and then feel the need to send out several more tweets explaining WHO she is? I mean, I know who Lily Collins because A) I do this shiz professionally and B) I pay attention to eyebrows, but I’m not the whole world. Maybe Lancome should have done a teaser campaign trying to introduce Lily before they made the big announcement?
Anyway, Lily is pleased. She released a statement: “It’s an absolute honor and privilege to have been chosen to represent the Maison Lancôme. I have always admired the brand’s unique and distinctive appreciation for inner beauty and grace, elegance and utter radiance. I feel incredibly lucky to be included among the most inspirational women ambassadresses for one of the most prestigious brands in the world. It’s truly a dream come true.”
Lily’s campaign will launch in January. Well… I’ll give her this much: she has lovely skin. And the teaser image (the header image in this post) is pretty although sort of boring. Maybe she’ll just be known as a fashion/beauty girl at this point, because she’s really not setting the world on fire with her acting talents. Did you see the box office for City of Bones? Yikes. They aren’t going to make their money back on that one.
Photos courtesy of Lancome, WENN.
She has a very striking face. Beauty contract is the way to go for her.
I agree, she does have a very striking face. No shade intended at Emma Watson, who is a pretty girl, but I think Lily is absolutely beautiful and is an upgrade for them. Lancome is trying appeal to a younger audience with both Lily and Emma.
She is a more classic beauty than Emma Watson. Perfect for Lancôme.
I agree, I think she is stunning. I really do think she is a talented actress. She comes off as really relatable and honest.
It was 95 degrees in my apartment, and I needed to find AC, so I went to the movies. Im going to admit that I was one of few who actually caught The Mortal Instruments, and I was really surprised at how natural her acting was. Even given the wild and sketchy dialogue, she was totally believable. I left the theater a fan of hers.
Seems a rather odd choice for the brand. I’m sure that there are many other woman that would have been a better choice.
Also I have to wonder if that many under-25’s use the brand? I’m under 30 and have never given the brand a look and this would not make me want to either.
I’m 23 – I don’t think ANY of their products have made me go “oouuu I want that”
Is it OK to remain annoyed at the way Lancome retired Isabella Rossellini?
Yes. Yes it is.
Yes! This! I’ve boycotted Lancôme since they dumped her. She’s still one of the most beautiful women in the world.
What happened,though?
I think Isabella appeared in or did something racy and the brand wanted to dissociate from her. Huge mistake. It really is disheartening and disappointing how we put our more mature citizens who have and could still continue to ‘serve’, entertain or teach us to pasture. For what? The talentless youth who only make us that much more petrified of our own mortality vs embracing it?
Omg! I was first reading this as Emma Roberts! Now I can feel indignant that I realize it’s Emma Watson. I enjoy her and am rooting for her career, but can’t say I’m impressed with her 2 films outside Harry Potter I’ve seen – Perks of …Wallflower & Bling Ring. But Emma does have a je ne sais quoi appeal. Lilly is beautiful and fits the Snow White image looks wise quite well. But she had no edge that I can see.
They retired her for being too old. She had reached grand old age of 40yrs!! Clearly 40yrs in Lancome years = old crone.
I would think less of you if you weren’t still annoyed.
If Lancome retired Isabella Rossellini because she turned 40, I hope karma bites them in the ass for that for a long long time. With a cosmetics line that’s very focused on anti aging, Lilly Collins is beautiful but I don’t want her skin, I want Isabella’s skin which is, and always was impeccable. God when will they learn…..
There were rumours they were going to retire her due to her age. Lo and behold, a few days after her 40th birthday, she was fired. She’s talked about it publicly several times. Then and recently, Lancome has never offered a rebuttal.
There was a huge public outcry at her being fired for ageism, but Lancome didn’t back down.
The lesson was learnt because all the beauty brands started putting out products aimed at the older women, and hiring long retired models or older spokeswomen like Lauren Hutton or Elizabeth Hurley.
In a way, some good came from her firing because it forced the industry to start to cater properly to the older customer. Many of the products on the market we’re not a reality when Isabella was Lancome’s spokesmodel.
I have nothing against Lily Collins (I love her eyes!) but I doubt that the average Joe or Joanne on the street would know her. I mean, Emma Watson was super duber famous because of Harry Potter so she had that instant recognition factor going for her…whereas Lily…not quite.
Did people buy Lancôme because of Emma Watson’s fame?
I’m 30 years old and only now am I starting to get interested in Lancôme. It’s expensive and intensely focused on age prevention in a way that frankly just doesn’t appeal to many young people.
I’m really sick of 20-something’s be the beauty models for everything anyway. I would much prefer to see a model who is a little older.
I like this choice, I think she fits the brand better than Emma did. Emma’s collab with Freepeople seemed to be more up her street.
Meanwhile Emma Watson is worldwide known thanks to HP, Lily Collins is not outside of US and UK. Being said that, Lily is by far a better choise for advertisement than Emma. Both are very pretty but Lily has a face you will remember. She is unique. I mean you can find many Emmas in Hollywood but not many Lilys.
Sorry for my english. I’m not a native speaker.
OK I guess? The actress thing certainly isn’t going well. It is odd that they hire such young women. Isn’t the idea to find someone older who looks amazing? All due to makeup of course *wink wink*?
Am I the only one who thinks lily Collins skin has an odd greyish color to it? Would not make me want to buy skin products. Her make up choices don’t really seem to help either. She looks like a 90s goth kid.
No. I noticed her skin has an odd grey overtone to it. Every time I look at her I am reminded of The Nightmare before Xmas.
she is an old color in many photos. and i dont find her striking at all. i can look at a hundred pics of her and not quite remember what she looks like.
It’s because she is very pale. Michelle Dockery is another actress with porcelain white skin like Lily and her skin looks like that in a lot of pictures at events due to lighting but in reality or if you watch videos they both have absolutely gorgeous skin and complexions.
She hasn’t replaced Emma Watson. She will be the face of a different collection, the French Ballerine.
I don’t see what the problem is with choosing her. She’s already more well-known than Isabella Rossellini who was only known for some modelling and being Ingrid Bergman’s daughter when Lancome first hired her. A lot of Rossellini’s fame actually came from becoming the face of Lancome cosmetics.
Lily definitely has a beautiful and striking face. In fact of the current crop of young actresses I think she’s the prettiest and obviously a natural beauty who will compliment their products. She is well-spoken, well-dressed, seems very sweet and pleasant in interviews, no gossip, no scandal so there’s no risk of any public embarrassment like KStew has been for Balenciaga. From an aesthetic and reputation sense it makes complete sense for Lancome to sign her.
I think Knorth Kardashian has that same shirt!
Lily’s very beautiful but she’s also the queen of flop movies right now it seems. Also, I’m 19 and I still think of Lancome as makeup for older women…I don’t know why they’re trying to skew so young. From my experience, teenagers (including me!) go for the cheapest thing (ELF or NYC) or the flashiest packaging (Urban Decay), or MAC if they can afford it. Maybe we just like capital letters.
Yes, it does appeal to older women — I’m a grandmother and I like it.
You’re very young so I’m willing to touch up your spelling. But for next time, Queen Of Flops spelled O-l-i-v-i-a–W-i-l-d-e.
Rimmel Black Cherries! Ah, the Nineties, we barely knew ya. I’m off to pick holes in my wooly black tights while listening to Soundgarden. BRB.
she’s a beautiful girl, so it doesn’t seem like a bad choice.
I just see Eddie Munster in those photos.
Lancome ads suck anyways…
Don’t care about her as an actress, but I do think she has the classic beauty. I just watched her interview with Jay Leno back in 2012 and she is very well spoken, articulate, and seems intelligent.
I am mad at that sweatshirt dress thing she is wearing in the last photos
She’s very pretty and should be modeling but when is she going to prove that she is a real actress and not just a pretty face?
I keep seeing people say she is the prettiest actress among the new crop of young actresses but that’s not what acting is about. She still hasn’t starred in a hit movie (She only had a bit role in The Blindside so does that really count?) and she still isn’t critically acclaimed or acclaimed by anyone really. Yep modeling is totally the way to go.
After reading all the comments I am super surprised to find out that Lancôme is considered for oledr women.
In france a lot of young girls and girls my age (27) buy it, I purchase their makeup since I am a teenager and they are huge amongst my demographic.
In asia they also are very popular amongst young girls/women.
So maybe they are trying to attract to younger demographics in north america and that’s why they want a younger face recognised there. I don’t know/
But I buy thir mascaras since I am 16! Funny to discover how different a perception of a brand can be 😉
I love Lily Collins and I think Lancome make a right choice,I will buy the products when they launched.Lily is a great beauty and she is cute,she has a good image also and I think she act very well since Mirror Mirror,as for box office,The Mortal Instruments:City Of Bones is doing quite well in Singapore and yes I’m from Singapore,I think Lily now have quite a lot of fans outside US,UK.
Well, she’s pretty – but as a big fan of lancome products, Lily feels so…budget. I liked it better when Kate Winslet was the face of Lancome, these girls don’t have the grandeur. As for Lily, she’s very pretty and can’t act or attract a box office audience. Looks like she’s set to be the next Jessica Alba.
Oh yay, another white girl as the face of Lancome. I like their skin care products, but this choice bores me.
Well I’ve always thought she’d make a great catalog model. (Hint hint: give up the acting thing, it’s embarrassing.)