Dive Brief:
- Maybelline New York is updating its over 30-year-old tagline and promoting the changes with a new global brand platform starring Miley Cyrus, according to a press release.
- “Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline” is becoming “Maybe. We’re born with it. Maybe. It’s Maybelline.” The added punctuation is meant to make the tagline feel more like a declaration while shifting from “she’s” to “we’re” is intended to be inclusive of all women versus focusing on an individual.
- The update responds to evolving perceptions of beauty, with a larger share of consumers seeing it as a way to build confidence. Cyrus appears in launch videos while the brand platform led by the pop singer will expand in the months ahead to feature more women’s voices.
Dive Insight:
Maybelline is reworking one of its signature brand assets as it tries to adapt to an evolving landscape for beauty and cosmetics. The L'Oréal-owned marketer’s “Maybe she’s born with it” tagline became a fixture of its advertising beginning in 1991, but consumers in 2026 are applying makeup for different reasons.
The company has attempted to modernize “Maybe” in the past. It was at one point dropped for the largely forgotten “Make It Happen” but eventually brought back. Maybelline revamped the “Maybe” tagline for the TikTok era two years ago. The latest overhaul appears more substantial, changing the underlying meaning of the copy, and is described in the release as permanent.
Over half of surveyed global respondents today see beauty as a way to build confidence compared to 26% who see it as a means of looking more attractive to other people or appearing younger for longer, per McKinsey findings cited by Maybelline. The suggestion is that makeup can be something less superficial and more empowering and inclusive.
Tweaks to the marketer’s tagline try to recognize these trends by adjusting the phrasing to sound less like a question being asked about a single woman’s look. Instead, the new “Maybe” is positioned as a declaration of the possibilities all women can achieve by leveraging makeup as a form of self-expression.
“With 'Maybe.', we're building on our legacy and inviting women everywhere, at every stage of life, to explore the possibilities within them,” said Maybelline Global Brand President Sandrine Jolly in a statement.
Maybelline enlisted Cyrus, an ambassador who’s previously voiced the “Maybe” tagline, to lead its new “The Beauty of Infinite Possibility” platform. Cyrus was selected for the effort because her own career has entailed a constantly shifting identity, moving from child star to hard-partying club song purveyor and then back to her country roots.
Cyrus released her latest album, “Bass Persuades,” in September, which could draw additional interest to the Maybelline partnership. “Bass Persuades” sees Cyrus again dabbling in the dance pop and electronic music genres.
Products featured in the campaign include Maybelline’s Serum Lipstick, Lash Sensational Sky High Mascara and Instant Eraser Concealer. Maybelline will partner with additional women in the worlds of music and elsewhere to share their stories of using makeup as a form of expression and reinvention.
Consumer products, the division of L'Oréal that Maybelline sits under, grew 4.3% on a like-for-like basis in Q3, lagging other segments like dermatological beauty and professional products.
