Mary J. Blige and Lil' Kim have broken a record set by their predecessors k.d. lang and RuPaul, by raising $4 million for the Canadia's M.A.C. Cosmetics' AIDS Fund in just one year. The fund has now raised $16 million since it's inception in 1994.

The money was generated by the sale of the company's Viva Glam III lipstick, (100 percent of the sales of the lipstick went directly to the fund) that was launched in March 2000. The campaign for the lipstick featured both Blige and Lil' Kim in ads shot by celebrity photographer David LaChapelle. The company is so pleased with the results that they signed both of the singers for an additional year to take part in their next campaign. Photographs of the two divas wearing white will bedeck M.A.C. store windows in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco, South Beach, Houston, Denver, San Diego and Chicago in April as part of M.A.C.'s "white-hot" campaign.

During her tour last summer, Blige also donated more than $600,000 on behalf of the fund to AIDS organizations in ten U.S. cities and visited charities to personally give her support. Lil' Kim was also committed to the AIDS fund beyond the print campaign; she also visited M.A.C. counters across America during her promotional tour for The Notorious K.I.M. last year.

JAAN UHELSZKI
(February 22, 2001)