Written by Parsons Green

Mary Kay Cosmetics recently announced new social media guidelines for all consultants and directors, and they are making it sound like they are going to be tough.

The full document can be found here, but let’s talk about some of the highlights!

Mary Kay consultants can no longer use the words Mary Kay or the initials MK in any of their social media handles or profile names.

In the past, they were allowed to use MK. I wonder why this change was made? Does corporate want their social media pages to always show up first when someone is looking up the term Mary Kay? As long as the consultant has a link to their Myshop page in their profile, they shouldn’t have any issues right?

Several consultants, directors, and nsds all have social media accounts that now violate this rule. Hopefully with their rebrand, both old and new customers will be able to connect with them on social media. Here are some reactions from the Facebook group about this change.

The company warned consultants not to use AI to generate images of Mary Kay Ash, or any celebrity that can imply the celebrity endorses Mary Kay.

With the recent death of Dolly Parton, several consultants tried very hard to show that there was a connection between Dolly and Mary Kay Ash herself. Here are some examples of that as well.

The company is basically putting the squeeze on consultants and directors to be much more selective in their use of the brand name. That sounds okay if you’re thinking that they want to legally protect the trademarks. But I wonder how it’s going to impact the visibility of the brand. Mary Kay is in dire financial straits and needs people talking about the brand MORE, not less.

And PEASE note!

Mary Kay is also going out of its way to make it seem like they care about false earnings claims, a persistent problem with consultants. But this is a new twist… You can tell people how much you make, just do it in private and not on social media. I guess the company didn’t consider that earnings claims aren’t supposed to be made AT ALL. But they’re trying to be clever. Just make the claim privately so no one has proof that you made it. Then no one gets in trouble!

The company is even offering suggestions on weasel words that consultants can use regarding their financial claims to make it less likely that they’ll get in trouble.