How MAC Stays Tapped Into Culture

From Madonna’s concert-lasting red lip to “Wicked” green to “Euphoria” skin and countless runway shows in between, MAC Cosmetics doesn’t just have its finger on the pulse of popular culture — it’s helping to shape it.

So much so that its global creative director Drew Elliott views MAC as a cultural brand, as opposed to a makeup brand.

“MAC’s always had a position that’s very unique, starting with Frank [Toskan] and Frank [Angelo], the founders of MAC. [Their vision] was to not create a makeup brand. It was to change the world. The fastest way to change the world is through pop culture,” said Elliott. “MAC has done it in so many tremendous ways in both the past, as well as the things we’re working on for the future. Across the gamut, collaboration has always been a very big powerhouse moment for MAC.”

Part of the secret to its success is its network of roughly 13,000 makeup artists globally, who are instrumental in creating iconic cultural moments across fashion, film, theater, TV, social media and beyond. Importantly, they also have a seat at the table across every step of the product development process.

“That is so unique to MAC. It goes back to the founding principles. It was never to have people sell makeup. It was to have people demonstrate how our makeup could perform for you to meet the look that you wanted to make,” said Elliott.

Starting with fashion, MAC sponsored makeup at hundreds of shows last season — including that of CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year winner Willy Chavarria.

Over the years, products have been not just tested backstage, but also created backstage, including Strobe Cream, which was developed for an Alexander McQueen show during the late ’90s to give models a unique glow.

“Being at all of those fashion events and creating the makeup and the looks that accompanied some of the most important collections ever to walk down the runway is so key and we built products backstage. We think of concepts, so all of that is so important,” said Elliott.

Another iconic fashion moment Elliott recalled was the lip look the late makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin often created for supermodel Linda Evangelista using the Spice lip pencil. The product was a viral icon long before the advent of TikTok and social media, regularly selling out.

But it’s not just fashion. In music, legend has it that Madonna asked the two Franks to create a red lipstick that would last the entire length of a concert ahead of her Blond Ambition World Tour in 1990. The result was Russian Red, an intense bluish red that’s still sold today.

“I think it’s a fabulous story,” quipped Elliott.

Then there’s MAC’s long involvement in theater, as with the famous Chromacake Paintstick in Landscape Green. Anyone who’s seen the Broadway hit “Wicked” is familiar with the hue, and soon its renown will broaden even more.

“It started on Broadway and has lived on,” said Elliott. “Not only do we have every shade of foundation, we also have that green that creates one of the most famous faces on Broadway, and it’ll soon hit the silver screen.”

Another MAC movie moment will be in the upcoming “Joker 2” film, with its products helping bring to life Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn portrayal.

When it comes to television, MAC Studio Radiance Face Body Radiant Sheer Foundation is a cross-generational favorite, worn by Pamela Anderson for her portrayal of C.J. Parker on “Baywatch,” as well as by the cast of hit HBO show “Euphoria.”

Wednesday Addams’ Goth-bitten lip in Netflix’s “Wednesday,” meanwhile, is the work of MAC Nightmoth lip pencil, a blackened plum hue. The product itself has become as popular as the show: While it’s been around for a long time, its use in “Wednesday” led to a 100 percent uptick in sales, according to Elliott.

But the fact that Wednesday’s lip was due to Nightmoth only came to light after the makeup artist Tara McDonald called Kat Quinn, executive director, global trend at MAC, to let her know.

“So much has happened behind the scenes, and stayed behind the scenes,” said Elliott. “One of the parts that we’re working on through MAC Trend and through bringing all these things to life is really showing people the makeup of some of their favorite moments in culture.”

In social media, MAC was the first makeup company to sign TikTok creator Sabrina Bahsoon, more widely known as “tube girl,” for a collaboration after the 23-year-old went viral while filming herself dancing and lip-synching in the London Underground last fall.

“Sabrina has rewired how people take a selfie,” said Elliott. “And I think that that’s her brilliance. MAC always looks to support incredible artists, not just in makeup, but who are making these amazing things happen. She’s one of those people.”

The speed at which that connection was made also highlights how MAC keeps its finger on the pulse.

“A member of our team found her,” recalled Elliott. “It was literally on a flight to London where we were launching MAC Studio Radiance Serum Powered Foundation. We were doing this show in London, and it was like, ‘We have to work with tube girl, and she’s based in London.’ And so, overnight, it was like, ‘let’s do that’.”

The story did not end there as Bahsoon is now a MAC global ambassador and appearing in its holiday campaign.

“MAC has worked with a huge amount of celebrities over the years. It’s always looking for people who have a little bit of a daredevil in them. They’re very unique,” said Elliott, noting that goes back to the early days when RuPaul was named its first spokesperson in 1994. “What makes a MAC person is they’re willing to live their life as an individual, and through that individuality, it creates influence, because there is this unapologetic way of being themselves that becomes classic and iconic.

“We have the most tremendous team that’s really connected to all of these people,” Elliott continued of building relationships in order to create these cultural moments. “We have an amazing artist relations team, and a pro team that works on building those relationships and also making sure that someone picks up the phone when Netflix calls.”

MAC’s artists also create cultural moments themselves on social media, including Canadian-based Megan Robinson, who regularly posts about famous makeup shades.

“She’s famous for talking about her Stone lip pencil. That’s one of her tags. But she also said that this new shade called Thanks, It’s Mac was something to pay attention to because it was a really flattering, universal nude. She broadcast that and created amazing content. And then people started trying it, and it created such a groundswell for this shade.”

While MAC was “super late to social” in the early days, said Elliott, the brand has more than made up for lost time. “Yes, we had channels, but we never really embraced social as being an important building block,” he said, “but as the world has changed, it is obviously now a key focus.”

This focus has paid off. According to CreatorIQ, Mac’s Earned Media Value was $38 million in April alone. EMV assigns a unique value to a piece of content based on engagement that this content receives from users (likes, comments, shares, views), as well as the platform that this content was published on (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc.), and attributes that value to brands mentioned in this content.

As for if internet culture inspires product development, the answer is a firm “yes.”

“Today, if you’re not designing for the Internet, you’ve missed the plot, right?” said Elliott.

He revealed that MAC is working on a project where it has brought back people’s most loved Disney collections.

“We listen to the internet and build on all of those things,” he said. “There is also a component where you want to listen and understand. How do we improve this? How do we make these formulas that have been so loved even better?”

The fact that MAC operates globally also impacts how it taps into trends and culture in different markets.

“You see so many things that are so different than what you might experience in New York,” said Elliott, who travels frequently. “What’s so amazing is people are always interpreting culture in so many different ways.”

MAC Trend is the platform the brand built to highlight the latest beauty trends both globally and locally. “We broadcast both the things that in our point of view are important, but also shine a light on the trends that we’re seeing around the world,” said Elliott.

As for what inspires Elliott these days, AI is top of mind.

“The world can be very afraid of things that they don’t know. It’s like, ‘AI will do all these things that I do,’ and that’s not the idea,” he said. “I think AI is going to only give you limitless ways to be creative. So whether it’s rendering a whole space, or taking out the busy work of things, it will create so many new ways that we can create things. That’s super inspiring to me.”