Mar

9

A Cat-astrophe in the Faking

Filed Under WTF 

Hello Mac Kitty

I told myself many times I would not blog about M·A·C Cosmetics’ partnership with Sanrio’s Hello Kitty. The line already garnered a ton of attention from media and retail outlets. Also, the collection will most likely be sold out at the time of this post. So, who needs a review on the kawaii Kitty Kat from me?

However, against my own position, here I am. The reason for my little rebellion? The makeup giant’s campaign took on a whole new level of ridiculousness that has gotten under my skin instead of on top of it.

Again, somehow M·A·C successfully imposed their idea of “made up” into another version of their famed androgyny. (This might be an easy transformation to accomplish with previous M·A·C spokespeople like RuPaul, Pamela Anderson, Boy George, and Shirley Manson, but how the art department managed to get their little hands on Hello Kitty–a cartoon no less!–and un-kitty-ify her can only be the work of M·A·C magic!) I’ve always been a bit torn by this cosmetic wizardry, only because I feel it celebrates the other, more than the self, which is what I feel make up should do. (Bring out the best; not bring out the rest.)

In all fairness however, what started out as M·A·C’s polemic and representation of men in makeup, and incredibly stylized women, now nearly seems to be the norm. That is, in embracing one’s own fantasy, outwardly and visually, people have become more like one another, and have also learned, they are like one another. So I will give M·A·C credit on being the revolutionary foundation (not concealer!) in at least how manipulating our appearances externally, society in general, to an extent, has come to accept one another’s actual being, now.

Then explain how such a forward-thinking company managed to approve a recycled concept for their cinematic short promoting the Hello Kitty line? My reaction is not unlike the models’ facial expression screen-captured in the above image. WTF? (As in, What the Feline?)

“Left-click” with your mouse on the picture to view the clip. It’s a bit What-You-Waiting-For? Gwen Stefani, with a little Lady-Marmalade Christina Aguilera, mixed in with some Feedback Janet Jackson, and to add a little high-brow cultural cred, Pour-Your-Body-Out Pippiloti Rist. In general however, it’s a really big mess.

I understand that M·A·C has two lines from the Hello Kitty Collection: Hello Kitty Mild and Hello Kitty Wild. I take it the M·A·C idea of fantasy comes to life when the unsuspecting slumbering model dreams of herself–already a hyperbole of a “feminine character,” a fairy than a dame–enters the “real dream”–kitty bondage set in black and PVC–where she becomes the pet of her cat–who is now a black model–and the other “fairies” out of work since the North American leg of Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour has ended. At this point, the music has gotten louder and includes lyrics. Do you want to feel the magic? is amplified at the critical moment where Mild meets Wild. Or maybe, as M·A·C has been trying to push for all these years, Wild meets Mild. The magic is the oh-so-subtle (note the sarcasm) cat-orgy, where the animals are humanized and the humans are animals, and climax is reached by trying out a different posture with every Homo erectus (I’m sorry; not punning is not possible for me) available before the cat finds it’s ball, so to speak, and our fairy returns from sleep.

Aroused? Content? It’s not certain. Safe from her thoughts? Yes. Even if her thoughts are M·A·C’s compact mirror to reality; or better still, a Hello Kitty plush doll clutched, like a safety blanket, to her side.

Accordingly, M·A·C’s Hello Kitty replaces the metaphor of the monkey on society’s back. You know, the one where society fears its own thoughts, and the limits to their thoughts? Who else than a cosmetic company to offer a cosmetic solution that society will not only accept, but also buy into? Perhaps a Japanese company with a family of cartoon mascots that for years has created a brand and business denying reality itself; packaged with a bow on it.

Surrender has never felt so glitter-sweet.

IMAGE | M·A·C Cosmetics | Hello Kitty Collection Ad | 2009

Comments

One Response to “A Cat-astrophe in the Faking”

  1. JM on March 13th, 2009 12:07 am

    :-( That video is four minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

    What an on-the-nose cheap-ass waste of money. They could have had so much fun with this. Instead it’s worse than my second-year film project, rips off Gwen Stefani/Harajuku and is full of (wow! so shocking!) visual pussy puns. Boring.

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