Sexism Led To The Inception Of The Mary Kay-Pink Cadillac
Data shows that American car buyers have little-to-no sense of creativity when it comes to the color of their vehicle, with the four most popular colors being white, black, silver, and gray. It’s rare to find a colorful car at all, let alone one in a statement color like pink, and finding a pink car that’s not a Jeffree Star hot pink nightmare is practically impossible. One cosmetics company, though, has offered its top sellers tasteful pink Cadillacs for more than 50 years. The name Mary Kay is synonymous with two things, a hugely successful woman-founded cosmetic business empire, and blush pink Cadillacs.
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Legend has it the inception of the Mary Kay pink Cadillac is actually rooted in sexism. Picture it; Dallas, Texas, 1967. A burgeoning business woman named Mary Kay Ash walked into a Dallas Lincoln dealership to purchase a special car to celebrate the success of her four-year-old company. She wanted a custom pink luxury car to match the shade of the blush in her trusty makeup compact. When Mary Kay spoke with the Lincoln salesman and began mentioning her unique request, the salesman shot her down before she could even show him the color she wanted. He said, “Little lady, go home and get your husband. And when you come back, we’ll get you into that Lincoln.”
Photo: Mary Kay
Women faced serious legal and social barriers in the 1960s. Banks could legally discriminate against women and deny them from getting a credit card without the signature of a spouse until 1974, but Mary Kay had enough of sexist discrimination. She walked into Frank Kent Cadillac in Fort Worth, Texas and asked a salesperson for a 1968 Sedan de Ville. The shade of Mary Kay’s blush closely matched a retired GM color called “Mountain Laurel,” so she bought a Mountain Laurel pink Cadillac Sedan de Ville. Her sales directors then bought matching cars, and two years later Mary Kay had the brilliant idea to lease five pink Cadillac sedans as incentives for the top five earners in her cosmetic business. According to Road & Track:
One hundred thousand Cadillacs have been produced for the cosmetics empire, since. The car has its own Twitter account. Each Cadillac is leased for two years: of the two current models, the CTS and the SRX, the latter is the most popular. Lower sales earners can also drive BMWs and Chevrolets, according to Mental Floss, but never in pink. (At one point, the BMW replaced a Ford Mustang.) Perhaps Mary Kay’s empire has fared better overseas than Cadillac itself: in China, or most of Europe, top sellers can get a pink Mercedes-Benz. In Brazil, a Honda Civic. In Russia, a Ford Mondeo. In Australia, an Opel convertible. Yes, they’re all pink.
There have been over 100,000 Mary Kay pink Cadillacs since she first walked into that Cadillac dealership in the ’67, and GM actually limits the color availability to Mary Kay Inc. Once the leases are up and the cars are returned to the dealer, they are repainted their original color, so you won’t find any Mary Kay pink Cadillacs on dealer lots. One of my favorite TikTokers Cars&Keys made a video about these legends of American culture where they explain that around 90 percent of the people who qualify for the pink Cadillac leases choose the car over the $900 per month bonus that’s the alternative incentive.
Mary Kay Ash was a pioneer for women’s rights, but she was also a ravenous capitalist, and Mary Kay Cosmetics is a textbook pyramid scheme. There are reports of Mary Kay sales people earning low wages and struggling to find success in the company, but for those burgeoning capitalists who buy into the scheme, pink Cadillacs have become very popular. Mary Kay’s idea turned out to be a brilliant marketing partnership between her cosmetic company and General Motors. Mary Kay still manages to make around $4 billion in global annual sales across 35 markets, but the pyramid scheme sales structure feels like its days might be numbered. Here’s hoping that there are many more years of spotting pink Cadillacs.
