Revlon ties contest to ‘lipstick on a pig’ controversy

Most of us may forget the “lipstick on a pig” controversy by next week.

But I’m betting the word lipstick will be front and center on the stump, straight through to the election and possibly beyond. As soon as the news about Barack Obama’s lipstick comment broke yesterday, the media went nuts.

Race Taylor, a deejay for WPLJ-FM 95.5 in New York City during afternoon drive time, turned it into a contest. He challenged listeners with three words and asked them to guess what he was referring to—words like raisin, petal and wine.  

They’re lipstick colors, of course, and Taylor gave credit to Revlon ColorStay. I suspect Revlon called the station and suggested the contest. That’s a great example of piggybacking onto a sizzling hot topic. Morning and afternoon drive-time shows LOVE fun stuff like this. (See “How to Get Onto Drive-time Radio Shows.”)

Thanks to Pamela J. Principe-Golgolab of PNA Associates Inc.,  a PR and marketing firm in Chester, N.J. for tipping us off to this one.