I’ve been very confused by Drew’s pimping game lately. On the one hand, she sold her wedding photos to PEOPLE, which was very pedestrian of her, but she didn’t sell her baby photos, which shows a modicum of restraint. She’s not offering up her mommy tips and carrying Olive in and out of heavily papped Pilates classes and juice bars. I mean her husband is an art consultant and as the media loves to remind us, Drew is a reformed Wild Child. She’s now a glorified reality star with a KFed 2.0 on her arm.
And now she’s doing a line of cosmetics that will be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.
Drew’s been a Covergirl since 2007, but her contract expires in January and apparently she’s already far into plans for her next project. The details are a bit scattered: US says she’s developing products with Maesa Group (from France) but WWD said she’s collaborating with Italian-based Intercos. I don’t know the difference between developing products and collaborating, but France, Italy, whatever, she’s still selling it exclusively at Wal-Mart.
So is Drew reaching out to her new demo – the mommies – through a product line at a major retailer placed right next to the toilet paper? Is she looking for ways to work the mommy angle without pimping her kid (if so, I can get behind that). I mean this is where she can show how well she can play: exploit a demographic without selling your entire soul to it.
Oh and she has wine, too: https://www.barrymorewines.com
As Drew will tell you, it’s all organic: She loves to eat and drink! She loves make-up! She loves everything and everyone!
Karl Lagerfeld designed her wedding dress; Reese Witherspoon and Steven Speilberg were guests; her producing partner (and maid of honour) is married to Jimmy Fallon; her wedding was in the “backyard” of her $5.7 million Montecito home. She presents at the Globes, the Emmys, the Oscars. Even her event schedule is exclusive – the first public post-baby outing was the very well attended LACMA Art + Film Gala.
You can do the former flower child-turned-mommy thing, but you throw in the wine and the arty husband and the pedigree (not just hers, he’s the son of a former Chanel CEO and had Uncle Karl over for holidays) and the branding is disjointed. It doesn’t feel niche, or exclusive, or particularly authentic. You can wrap it in Europe or quotes about how “hands-on” she is, but it doesn’t fit an A-lister who had her baby shower at Cameron Diaz’s house.
After the childhood stardom and rehab and flashing Letterman and going to the Oscars with Edward Norton, three marriages and producing (and starring) in fair share of hits, Drew’s earned her loveable infamy and stardom. I wish she’d leave the faux accessible everymom act to the Jessicas and just go on being Drew.
Attached - Drew shopping at Whole Foods this weekend. Pretty much the opposite of Wal-Mart.
