A raven-haired young woman, after smiling straight into a camera, smudges dark eyeliner onto her brunette counterpart in a make-up chair. The minute-and-a-half video, one of millions of make-up tutorials on YouTube, aims to show viewers how, with the help of Avon's eyeliner and eyeshadow, they can achieve a "cool girl rocker look". Another promotional video shows a woman in hot-pink stilettos, singing to the tune of Aretha Franklin's I will Survive, changing the lyrics to: I grew strong, and learned how to sell Avon. The clip has been viewed 1.7 million times. These are the modern "Avon Ladies" - a legion of vloggers Avon has enlisted to launch the 131-year-old juggernaut into the future. "Our top sellers today are running their own store on Facebook from Brazil," says Sheri McCoy, who this week said she would step down as CEO, after overseeing an 85% collapse in Avon shares in the past five years. McCoy says today's social-media "influencers" are a new version of the Avon Ladies of...
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