Julia Roberts is the New Global Ambassdor for Lancome
Julia Roberts is a new global ambassador for Lancome. WWD
reports that the details of Julia's new role won't be made public until early next year.
Part of the movement of top-tier stars into beauty began when the celebrity fragrance trend started to gain traction in 2001 with Jennifer Lopez's Glow by J.Lo, which did upwards of $100 million at retail globally in its first year on counter. In February 2002, Catherine Zeta-Jones signed a spokeswoman deal with Elizabeth Arden, and the star race was on. It now includes Cate Blanchett promoting Procter & Gamble Co.'s SK-II skin care line; Halle Berry representing both makeup at Revlon and her own fragrances at Coty Beauty; Kate Winslet as the face of Lancome's Tresor fragrance, and Brad Pitt partnering with Kiehl's. As Zeta-Jones told WWD in March 2008, "Things have completely changed. It used to be, if you're an actor, why are you selling stuff? People only used to do it in Japan. But beauty is an industry that makes complete sense for an actress."
The Internet is what changed all that. Major movie stars have done ads in Japan for years with strict contract provisions requiring that the ads would never be seen outside of that country. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have both done Japanese campaigns. But when the Internet arrived, fans would pass around the ads to fans all over the world. When movie stars' careers didn't come to a screeching halt just because they hawked beer in Japan, agents realized that the old taboo of big stars not hawking products was officially over.
Now, every major star wants a big commercial contract. This is why you don't see models as faces of major cosmetics companies much any more: the movie stars and their agents have snapped them up.
