The cosmetics brand with a 77-year history, L’Oréal’s Lancôme, taps a legendary, now 80-year old, animated character Betty Boop for its advertising. The sweet female character with giant eyes, created as a caricature of singer Helen Kane, will make its appearance in the Hypnôse Star print advertising and store displays this season. The screen celebrity from the 30s, created by Max Fleischer, will get featured on the ads leaning up against a container of the standing mascara, next to the model Daria Werbowy.

Photo: Betty Boop in the Lancôme advertising, www.nytimes.com (click to enlarge)

The dark-haired character, who is wearing a black sparkling dress and high heels, looks extremely seductive and provocative in the ad. “Lancôme reveals the secret to showstopping eyes. Betty Boop originated the look and now supermodel Daria recreates it,” says the ad, created by Publicis 133 in Paris. According to The New York Times, the ad with photography by Mario Testino will be featured in the December issue of Harper’s Bazaar and the January issues of magazines including Elle, Glamour and People. “Betty Boop from the beginning was very glamorous and seductive and sultry. And one of the iconic things that you think about are her eyes,” commented Silvia Galfo, senior vice president for marketing at Lancôme.

For the new collaboration with Lancôme, the Hollywood icon got a new style and look (of course, the one which highlights her stunning curling lashes)—Frank Caruso, the vice president for creative at King Features Syndicate, the company which produced the celebrity’s website BettyBoop.com, draw original sketches to make the character fit into the advertising picture. “The way Max Fleischer drew her, she has five eyelashes on the top, and four on the bottom. When you’re doing a campaign for Lancôme, who makes the best mascara in the world, you better thicken up those eyelashes,” says Caruso.

Betty Boop joins a roster of Hollywood celebrities, including Isabella Rossellini, Julia Roberts and Uma Thurman, who fronted previous Lancôme’s advertising campaigns.