VIVA MAC: AIDS, Fashion, and the Philanthropic Practices of MAC Cosmetics

"The book makes important contributions to urban history, the history of queer life, the history of corporate social responsibility, Canadian business history and the history of beauty and fashion."

Catherine Carstairs, University of Guelph, Canadian Business History Association

"This is a story that needs to be told. Todays’ generation of fashion students have no history of the losses the industry faced in the 1980s-1990s as the AIDs epidemic was ravishing every level of the fashion and the arts industries. VIVA M·A·C gives them a thorough account of how we got to where we are today."

Susan Baxter, associate professor of Marketing and Dean of Graduate Studies, LIM College

"The book is highly original as there is no other socio-cultural or business history of M·A·C. Benoit fuses a detailed historical record of M·A·C, AIDs within a setting of entrepeneurship and the Toronto fashion scene in a readable and enjoyable style that is framed within relevant critical theories that support and explain these histories that have not previously been delineated. This is a work that should be much referenced."

Alexandra Palmer, Nora E. Vaughan Senior Curator, Textiles & Costume, Royal Ontario Museum

"With her extensive and illuminating research, Andrea Benoit tells the powerful story of a fearless company with heart. Harnessing the unbridled creativity that ran rampant in Toronto during M·A·C's formative years, ‘the Franks’ tapped into the pride and psyche of an entire society and inspired it to new artistic heights. Despite AIDS's dark shadow, Benoit paints a compelling portrait of an exhilarating fashion era, illustrating how courage and compassion can exist on a corporate level when hearts and minds are open and passionate." Jeanne Beker, Journalist, Author, and Style Editor

"What happens when a company engages in ‘cause marketing’ long before that concept was widely known or practiced? Benoit’s study of M·A·C and AIDS-related fundraising during the 1980s and 1990s tells this fascinating story with panache, analytical rigour, and far-ranging historical investigation. This crisply written, multi-disciplinary account will interest scholars in such fields as health and society, LGBTQ studies, critical consumer/marketing studies, fashion history, and media studies."

Daniel J. Robinson, Associate Professor, Media Studies, Western University