Mary Kay and GM Think Pink

General Motors and May Kay, Inc. continue to work together in a relationship that's nearly 40 years old. That's right folks, the pink Cadillacs are still going strong.

To date, GM has built approximately 100,000 pink Cadillacs for Mary Kay. An example of the attention GM shows the Mary Kay account is on full display at its factory in Hamtramck, Michigan.

The plant builds about 800 pink Cadillac DTS sedans (the top award for Mary Kay's star sellers) each year.

The Detroit News:

THINK PINK
Mary Kay loves GM for its eye-popping Cadillacs
Brett Clanton / The Detroit News

Right now, hundreds of thousands of Mary Kay cosmetics sellers are competing for a unique trophy that has distinguished the best among them for nearly 40 years -- the keys to their very own pink Cadillac.

And next month, on a stage in Dallas, a few misty-eyed winners will claim their reward.

The honor of producing the Mary Kay Cadillac has not been lost on General Motors Corp., which through the years has fought to keep the account amid competition from suitors and a slump at its Cadillac brand during the 1980s and 1990s.

But the relationship may be equally important to Mary Kay, whose brand identity has been tied to the luxury car marque from the cosmetic company's earliest days. Rewarding top sellers with, say, a pink Lexus just wouldn't be the same.

While the pink is not so pink anymore and GM is not the same company it was when the program began, the pink Cadillac has endured as the ultimate prize for the Texas makeup purveyor as the company has grown into a global empire.

Along the way, the pink Caddy has also become an American icon, immortalized in songs by Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin, dropped in movies and used as a ride for Barbie. But it is perhaps best known as an unmistakable symbol of the self-made businesswomen.