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To put "lipstick on a pig" is a rhetorical expression, used to convey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product. While the rhetorical concept appears to have a long-standing provenance, the actual phrase appears to be of 20th-century coinage, and has risen to prominence due to its use in US politics, most recently during the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.

Origins of the phrase

Pigs have long featured in proverbial expressions: a "pig's ear," a "pig in a poke," as well as the Biblical expression "pearls before swine." Indeed, whereas the phrase "lipstick on a pig" seems to have been coined in the 20th century, the concept of the phrase may not be particularly recent. The similar expression, "You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear" seems to have been in use by the middle of the 16th century or earlier. Thomas Fuller, the British physician, noted the use of the phrase "A hog in armour is still but a hog" in 1732, here, as the Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1796) later noted "hog in armour" alludes to "an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed." The Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) recorded the variation "A hog in a silk waistcoat is still a hog" in his book of proverbs The Salt-Cellars (published 1887).

The lipstick variety is more modern, the word lipstick itself only coined in 1880. The rhetorical effect of linking pigs with lipstick was explored in 1926 by Charles F. Lummis, in the Los Angeles Times, when he wrote "Most of us know as much of history as a pig does of lipsticks." However, the first recorded uses of "putting lipstick on a pig" are later. In an article in the Quad-City Herald (Brewster, Washington) from Jan. 31 1980, it was observed that "You can clean up a pig, put a ribbon on it's [sic] tail, spray it with perfume, but it is still a pig." The phrase was also reported in 1985 when The Washington Post quoted a San Francisco radio host from KNBR-AM remarking "That would be like putting lipstick on a pig" in reference to plans to refurbish Candlestick Park (rather than constructing a new stadium for the San Francisco Giants).

Contemporary usage

More recently, the phrase has been used in political rhetoric to criticize spin, and to insinuate that a political opponent is attempting to repackage established policies and present them as new. Victoria Clarke, who was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under Donald Rumsfeld, published a book about spin in politics titled Lipstick on a Pig: Winning In the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game. The book argued, using anecdotes from her own career, that spin does not work in an age of transparency, when everyone will find out the truth anyway ("you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig").

In recent years the phrase has become common and often controversial political invective both in the United Kingdom and the United States. The expression has been used by many US politicians, including both the Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain during the United States Presidential Election of 2008, and Vice President Dick Cheney (who called it his "favorite line").

In May 2002, brokerage firm Charles Schwab Corporation ran a television advertisement pointing out Wall Street brokerage firms' conflicts of interest by showing an unidentified sales manager telling his salesmen, "Let's put some lipstick on this pig!" The ad appeared shortly after New York's Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced that Merrill Lynch stock analysts had recommended stocks that they privately called "dogs." CBS refused to air the ad.

Similar expressions

Put some rouge on the corpse - "Gov. Ernie Fletcher's budget makers and speech writers did their best to put some rouge on the corpse. But even their best efforts couldn't disguise the harsh truth in the budget he presented Tuesday: Kentucky's fiscal future lies dead in the water in almost every major respect, and there is neither a budgetary plan nor a political prospect for reviving it."

Putting a racing stripe on a turd - "As far as I'm concerned, speeding up a tax cut is like putting a racing stripe on a turd - at the end of the day, it's still a turd."

See also

• List of political catch phrases
• Cultural references to pigs

References

1. Using English.com
2. ^ Ben Zimmer, Who First Put 'Lipstick on a Pig'? Slate.com Sept. 10, 2008
3. ' Lipstick on a pig' finds origin in tiny state newspaper Monica Guzman September 10, 2008 SeatlePi.com
4. Mathews, Jay (1985-11-16). "San Francisco Tries To Keep Baseball Raiders at Bay". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-09-27. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
5. Clarke, Victoria (2006). Lipstick on a Pig: Winning In the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7116-5.
6. Wendy Greenberg in Newswise Issue No. 200606, June 2006.
7. Labour 'lipstick on a pig' attackBBC news website Wednesday, 26 July 2006
8. "Obama rejects 'lipstick' charge". BBC. September 10, 2008. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help).
9. "McCain Said "Lipstick" Too". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
10. "Obama accuses McCain campaign of 'lies'" Associated Press, Sept. 10, 2008
11. Turns out Dick Cheney knows about "lipstick on a pig" too Dallas Morning News Wed, Sep 10, 2008
12. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/11/20041101-12.html Vice President's Remarks in Colorado Springs, Colorado
13. Patric K. McGeehan, Schwab Ads Take Swipe at Big Firms, The New York Times, October 28, 2002.
14. Flat lining Kentucky an editorial in The Courier Journal, Louisville, Ky. January 29, 2004.
15. "Had Enough? A Handbook for Fighting Back" by James Carville with Jeff Nussbaum (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2003) Page 123.

• English phrases