The phrase to put "lipstick on a pig" means making superficial or cosmetic changes to a product in a futile effort to disguise its fundamental failings.
The phrase "lipstick on a pig" has been used for centuries in various forms, including "you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear."
The use of "lipstick on a pig" in its current form dates back to at least 1926, but it gained widespread use in political rhetoric during the 2008 United States presidential election, where it was used to criticize spin and to imply that an opponent (beginning with Sarah Palin) was attempting to repackage established policies and present them as new.
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.
[5] In the summer of 1992 at the Democratic National Convention, Texas governor Ann Richards said "Well, you can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monique, but it's still a pig.
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.