Maybelline Rewrites a 35-Year-Old Slogan for the Miley Cyrus Era

Maybelline retired a 35-year-old slogan on November 10, replacing "Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline" with "Maybe. We're born with it. Maybe. It's Maybelline."

The change anchors a new global brand platform called The Beauty of Infinite Possibility, fronted by Miley Cyrus. It's the biggest messaging overhaul for the beauty brand since 1991, when the original tagline first appeared.

According to Maybelline, the rewording celebrates confidence, inclusivity and self-expression. The company frames the shift from "she's" to "we're" as a move away from questioning one woman's beauty toward recognizing the possibilities within every woman.

The logic is defensible. Beauty marketing has changed enormously since the early 1990s, and established brands routinely re-examine whether their messaging matches how consumers see themselves today. Maybelline's own explanation of the change tracks with that broader industry push toward collective, rather than individual, address.

Not everyone is sold on the execution.

What actually changed in the wording?

Most of the words survive intact. Maybelline swapped one pronoun — "she's" becomes "we're" — and added punctuation that breaks the line into four fragments instead of two sentences.

Marketing expert Kamya Marwah, writing an expert opinion column, acknowledged the rationale but flagged the delivery. "While I understand the change in language, I'm less convinced by the execution," Marwah wrote.

The core of the critique is structural. The original slogan worked as a question and answer in perfect balance: maybe it's genetics, maybe it's the product. Two clauses, one beat apart. The rewrite chops that rhythm into staccato pieces, and the added periods change how the line lands when read aloud or scanned on a shelf.

"What interests me is how much the punctuation alters the way the tagline reads," Marwah wrote.

The numbers behind the decision explain the ambition. A slogan in continuous use since 1991 is one of the longest-running assets in beauty advertising, and few taglines of that era remain on air today. Replacing it means walking away from 35 years of accumulated recognition — a calculation brands rarely make lightly.

Why brands modernize slogans at all?

There are certain advertising slogans that become so familiar it's difficult to imagine the brands behind them without those words, as Marwah notes. Maybelline's line belonged to that category. That's precisely what made it valuable, and precisely what made it a target for modernization.

The pivot to "we're" reflects a wider move in beauty marketing away from singular, aspirational framing toward plural, inclusive address. Hiring Miley Cyrus as the face of the platform reinforces that positioning — a celebrity choice built on self-expression rather than conventional polish.

Marwah's verdict cuts both ways. She appreciates the thinking behind the decision and accepts that the category has moved on from early-1990s messaging. Her reservation is narrower: modernizing a brand doesn't always mean improving it, and a small punctuation change can make a big difference in how an iconic asset reads.

What's the risk going forward?

The stakes are brand equity, plain and simple. Maybelline keeps most of the original words, which preserves searchability and recall, but the fragmented rhythm risks turning its most iconic asset into a punchline rather than a refresh. Marwah's column carries that warning in its title.

The platform is permanent, not a limited campaign, so the wording will live across Maybelline's global marketing for the foreseeable future. Whether "Maybe. We're born with it. Maybe. It's Maybelline" earns the same 35-year tenure as its predecessor will depend on whether consumers hear inclusivity — or just extra periods.