Women and Gender

Shields: CoverGirl should not sponsor NFL in light of domestic abuse issues

Adele Stan, senior digital editor of liberal magazine The American Prospect, has taken a stand against CoverGirl’s sponsorship of the NFL. On Sept. 11, Stan tweeted a picture of CoverGirl’s Baltimore Raven’s make-up collection edited to make the model in the ad appear to have a black eye, in response to the NFL’s handling of the Ray Rice domestic abuse incident. Since then, the photo and several others like it have gone viral in an effort to campaign against CoverGirl’s sponsorship of the NFL.

Stan is absolutely right in her stance against this sponsorship. Until the NFL takes a definite stance against its problem with violence against women, starting with the resignation of Commissioner Roger Goodell, CoverGirl should not be a sponsor.

Stan’s campaign against CoverGirl’s sponsorship with the NFL has become so extensive that CoverGirl released a statement on Sept. 15. On its Facebook page, CoverGirl said it started its NFL program “to celebrate the more than 80 million female football fans” and that it has “encouraged the NFL to take swift action on their path forward to address the issue of domestic violence.”

It’s not hard to see why it would be problematic for CoverGirl to continue sponsoring the NFL. A majority of CoverGirl’s consumers are women and the NFL has a distinct problem with violence against women. According to the USA Today NFL Arrests Database, 77 players throughout 27 of the NFL’s 32 teams have been arrested on charges of domestic violence since 2000.

As a business whose majority of consumers are women, CoverGirl should be moved to action by these numbers. Aside from being humane, it is also a smart business model for CoverGirl to invest in its loyal consumers instead of an establishment that does not treat women properly.



In the past CoverGirl has been a supporter of female empowerment. From its Clean Water and #GirlsCan campaigns to its partnerships with positive female examples like Ellen Degeneres, P!nk and Janelle Monae, CoverGirl has proven that it cares about its female consumers and not just about cashing in on its latest paycheck.

CoverGirl now has an opportunity to take a stand for what is right. As a business whose demographic is largely made up of women, CoverGirl should be concerned with issues that affect many of these women.

According to a Sept. 12 Washington Post article, 45 percent of the NFL’s 150 million fan base is made up of women. Until Commissioner Goodell resigns and some major policy changes are made within the NFL, CoverGirl should not sponsor a league that doesn’t advocate for almost half its fans.

Mandisa Shields is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @mandisashields.





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