Local company CoverGirl, which is the “official beauty sponsor of the NFL,” has been hyping an ad campaign focused on team-color makeup targeting the league’s female demographic.
In light of the recent domestic violence scandal,
American Prospect‘s Adele Stan and account executive Leslie Macfadyen edited the Baltimore Ravens image to give the model a black eye and insist that CoverGirl pull its sponsorship for the NFL until Commissioner Roger Goodell resigns. The image, among many others, has since gone viral.
So, @COVERGIRL is the #NFL‘s “Official Beauty Sponsor.” Tell them #GoodellMustGo pic.twitter.com/g3LDd1vfly
— Adele Stan (@addiestan) September 12, 2014
As a local company, we contacted CoverGirl to see what their response was to the photostopped ads and criticism that they should drop support for the NFL. They issued us the following statement:
“As a brand that has always supported women and stood for female empowerment, COVERGIRL believes domestic violence is completely unacceptable. We developed our NFL program to celebrate the more than 80 million female football fans. In light of recent events, we have encouraged the NFL to take swift action on their path forward to address the issue of domestic violence.”
Though it’s quite the boilerplate statement, this viral back-and-forth is just another example of the sheer scope of the Ray Rice scandal, something further escalated yesterday by the Ravens’ response, and vehement denial, of claims in an ESPN article published last week. One thing is for sure: criticism of the NFL’s mishandling of this situation won’t let up any time soon.