Marilyn Monroe is probably one of the most misquoted celebrities. A quick search turns up numerous graphics with one of her famous images overlaid with something like, “Well-behaved women seldom make history”—which she absolutely did not say—in a tacky font.
One thing Monroe did, in fact, say: “Am I a commodity? I don’t look at myself that way, but I’m sure one corporation in particular has.” She said it in 1962, shortly before her death, to Life editor Richard Meryman during a conversation now encapsulated in the new book Marilyn: The Lost Photographs, The Last Interview. She didn’t say outright what corporation she was referring to, but it was likely one of the film studios; she worked most with 20th Century Fox.
Monroe was obviously aware of how she could be exploited, but there was no way she could imagine the kind of Marilyn Monroe merchandise that would come to proliferate decades later. June 1, 2026, would have been her 100th birthday, and it has arrived along with an inevitable surge of products—many of them beauty products—supposedly infused with her mystique.
A few months ago, I bemoaned the influx of PR pitches using Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy to push their clients’ products—headbands and lipsticks and moisturizers that brands and their publicists said evoked Bessette-Kennedy’s signature style. Of course, these are products that she never had a chance to use, let alone approve the use of her image to promote—an unlikely scenario based on the privacy she fiercely guarded up until her death. A few people in Allure’s Instagram comments didn’t see what all the fuss was about, citing Marilyn Monroe as an example of someone who also died tragically in her 30s and is, to all appearances, freely marketed to us. There is, however, a difference.
When Marilyn Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose on August 4, 1962, her estate was left to her acting coach, Lee Strasberg, who left it to his wife, Anna. In 2011, Anna sold the intellectual property and commercial rights to the Authentic Brands Group. In other words, while the use of Bessette-Kennedy in marketing pitches is legally questionable, there’s a team overseeing and actively licensing the usage of Monroe’s image.
But does that constitute a moral difference?
Currently, there are two dozen brands participating in Marilyn Monroe partnerships specifically surrounding her 100th birthday via Authentic Brands Group, four of which are beauty brands. Color Street is offering nail polish strips with Marilyn Monroe motifs; Ipsy has designed Monroe-inspired bags for its June subscription box; Shark launched a Marilyn Monroe edition of its CryoGlow LED Face Mask; and Lisa Eldridge is offering a makeup collection inspired by photos of Monroe taken by Sam Shaw.
In many ways, cosmetic products celebrating Marilyn Monroe make a lot of sense. There’s no doubt that Monroe was and continues to be one of the most influential beauties in our culture. In a 2012 Allure story, writer Rebecca Mead explored exactly why Monroe’s image endures: “She wasn’t Hollywood’s first voluptuous, fair-haired beauty. She wasn’t even Hollywood’s first voluptuous, fair-haired beauty who died at a tragically young age: That would be Jean Harlow… But Monroe is the one whose beauty is so instantly recognizable that it can be indicated merely by a handful of components: blonde bouffant hair; sleepy, half-shut eyes; slightly parted lips on the verge of a welcoming smile.” And then of course there are the intangibles—her dynamism, but also her vulnerability and almost childlike quality.
