Pamela Anderson Won’t Be Wearing MAC Makeup Any Time Soon

Pamela Anderson wrote a letter to MAC Cosmetics, appalled at the company’s decision to sell products in China, where animal testing is required by law for imported cosmetics. The staunch PETA activist, who has worked with MAC in the past, discovered that the brand “abandoned its celebrated policy against animal testing.”

According to Page Six, Anderson addressed the letter to John Demsey, Estée Lauder group president. Here is an excerpt:

When I worked with M.A.C., I found it to be a very progressive and forward-thinking company. That’s why I was very disturbed to learn from PETA that M.A.C., under your direction at Estée Lauder, is selling products in China, where the company funds painful tests on animals in order to meet the country’s archaic regulations. This has tainted the brand and alienated many of the company’s longtime allies.

Anderson asked the cosmetic brand to join other companies who have refrained from selling in China until the country changes its policy—such as Urban Decay and Dermalogica.

As an honorary director of PETA and a former M.A.C. spokesperson, I urge you to pull out of the Chinese market until the country’s testing methods are modernized like those of much of the rest of the world. Corporate leaders can make this happen. Won’t you restore M.A.C. to its former glory as a brand with principles?

Will MAC listen to Anderson’s plea? In a statement on the Estée Lauder company website, the topic is addressed and it looks bleak. Sorry, Pam.

As a global company, we are committed to providing our products and services to our consumers where they live, and we must comply with all legal requirements in the countries where we do business.

The company insists it is trying, though:

We will continue to work hard to end animal testing of cosmetic products and ingredients. We are strong advocates that cosmetic product and ingredient safety can be proven by means other than animal testing. As a Company, we conduct or commission only in vitro and human volunteer testing to establish the safety and efficacy of our products—and we will continue to diligently advance the acceptance of the existing alternatives to animal testing everywhere we sell our products.