There's a lot of talk about lipstick in the political arena these days, and you have to bet that cosmetic companies are happy about that. Any publicity is good publicity, right? Perhaps it's the most fitting time of all for CoverGirl to announce that its newest CoverGirl will be Ellen Degeneres.



An unlikely choice or not? She joins Queen Latifah, Drew Barrymore, Rihanna, the winners of America's Next Top Model and a slew of new Olympic gymnastic stars from the Beijing Olympics, and, back in the fold after many, many years, Christie Brinkley. Brinkley was the original CoverGirl and she promoted the company's cosmetics for 20 years, and now she is back to shill for age-defying makeup.

Ellen, of course, wears a ton of makeup in her daily job as a talk show host, but she is not the first person you'd think of when you think about glamor. She's also not exactly a runway model. She looks like a real person and dresses in a true anti-glam fashion -- a pant suit is still a pant suit even if you wear it to host the Oscars.

While Rihanna appeals to teens who want to look their best, Ellen will appeal to older women who still want to look their best, but maybe realize that they are who they are and they don't need to cover up anything or change anything about themselves. That's, at least, the message I'd be getting as somebody in the target audience. It strikes me as something akin to Dove's "real women" campaign, which picks regular-looking women to advertise beauty products. And it's a refreshing trend from the rail-thin models who had become so prevalent on magazine covers.

So does that pin cosmetics as the new anti-glam and cosmetic surgery as the new glam?