Fair and Lovely: Does a change in name reverse all the damages caused by the brand?

HUL’s Fair and Lovely, to drop the word ‘Fair’ from its name. Does that mean the brand finally understood its part in the unfair colourism problem in India? Or is it just another Marketing gimmick to survive the new generation that has the means to raise voices against the big brands?

While it is not fair to say that Fair and Lovely or the other fairness brands started a stigma against dark-skinned people, one must agree that these brands fed on them and capitalised on people’s insecurities for years now.

A father wishes he had a son instead of a daughter, as he believes their financial situation could have been better. The daughter overhears this and gets upset. She finally sees a fairness cream ad that promises a glowing face and fair skin. She uses it to get fairer and becomes an air hostess. The ad ends with the daughter taking her father to a seemingly expensive restaurant. What do you think would go on the minds of the children in the house? Inferiority complex? Sadness, because of their skin tone? Or a high possibility of developing a prejudice against certain skin tones? Now, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Every fairness cream ad was showing this same formula for decades. There’s the story of a girl that gets a good groom after becoming fair, a girl that gets the confidence to sing on stage because she got fair, a girl that loses a chance of dancing because of her skin tone, and the list just goes on. It doesn’t stop with just Indian ads, racist ads have been showcased for years in most parts of the world and for a good amount of time with no one powerful enough to raise their voice against them. https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/dove-issues-apology-racist-ad-what-about-indian-ads-sell-fair-better-69691. Some even went as far as to promote colour as a tool for racial discrimination. Slowly companies understood that the people would not be sitting quietly ignoring everything thrown at them or at the people they care about. However, in India’s case, this change is slow.

India’s history of colourism

Fairness products in India have a history of providing absurd promises to their customers. Do you want a job? Become fair. You want a good Bride? Become fair. You want your parents to be proud of you? Become fair. You want the cute guy to look at you? Become Fair. Almost every fairness product, teaches you that you cannot be confident and/or be socially acceptable if you have dark skin. In a nation filled with brown-skinned people, these brands somehow taught everyone that being dark is a sin. However, we can’t blame them alone for this, as India’s history with colourism goes way back to our European colonization. 2-3 generations of India grew up believing that fair-skinned people are superior to them. It is common to brush aside a prejudiced, racist remark on colourism as a joke in our society. Sadly, even art, literature and religion has taken upon this cruel ideology. We changed the skin tones of our gods, jokes on dark skin are a recurring theme in movies and books. We grew up associating fair skin with, wealth, caste, marriage prospects, job opportunities, even with knowledge, morality, purity and righteousness. While we associated black skin with wickedness, treachery and illegal. (Revisiting the fairness paradigm in India, Varisha Rehman, Society and Business Review).While it is not fair to say that Fair and Lovely or the other fairness brands started a stigma against dark-skinned people, one must agree that these brands fed on them and capitalised on people’s insecurities for years now.

India’s history with colourism goes way back to our European colonization. Sadly, even art, literature and religion has taken upon this cruel ideology.

Do they actually care?

HUL promises that they “want to lead the celebration of a more diverse portrayal of beauty”. The company also said, “We recognise that the use of the words 'fair', 'white' and 'light' suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don't think is right, and we want to address this”.

While we all agree that it is a step in the right direction, it’s probably too late and too small a step. The damage has already been done. Thousands of people(If not more), grew up watching the promotional ads and messages, thinking that they are inferior because of the colour of their skin. The brand has been giving out shade cards. The fairest colour in the card is the objective, it’s like the fairer your skin gets the more points you get! Implementing gamification in someone’s skin colour? Where was the brand’s sense of morality and judgement there?

Despite what they say, it’s evident that the change is mainly due to two things.

One, the Ministry of health and family welfare finalised Drugs & Medical Remedies Amendment bill, against a lot of objectionable ads that includes skincare products that promote any particular skin colour as superior. It is to be noted this is not the first time a law against these ads was passed. (In 2014, ASCI (Advertising Standard Council of India) brought in some similar guidelines).

Two, the ongoing global movement, #blacklivesmatter. The movement has been recognized widely in India and people took to Twitter to even question the celebrities who were part of these ads. Though this is not the first campaign against colourism (Dark is beautiful campaign, Unfair and lovely campaign, etc. have been around for quite some time now), this time the brands realized it’s high time they check themselves. The people are more aware of their stand ever and social media became a powerful tool to showcase their voice to the world, which means hiding behind colourful ads and marketing won’t help anymore. Adding fuel to the fire, Johnson & Johnson announced that they are stopping production of their Skin whitening creams, in response to the worldwide movement. While Fair and lovely did not have much of a competition, as it dominates 80% of the market, the announcement from J&J still did damage to the goodwill of the brand. (It is to be noted that in 2016, Fair and Lovely was the 2nd most trusted brand in personal care items!)

The fairest colour in the card is the objective, it’s like the fairer your skin gets the more points you get!

The path forward

While we all agree that it’s a step in the right direction, it’s probably too late and too small a step. The damage has already been done.

To be honest, this is a victory for many activists who are fighting against these stigmas and the corporations that capitalize on them for a long time. While we are happy to see the brand finally listening to the voice of people, the damage has already been done. Decades of promotion of fair skin cannot be undone with a single name change. Unless, the brand comes forward to rebrand itself wholly, apologizes for all the years of misguidance and promote a more diverse portrayal of beauty as it promises, both through its promotions and the product itself, this is nothing but a marketing gimmick. Maybe the next time we see an ad from these brands, we would see a model with dark skin achieving everything in her life, while staying on her own skin, no multiple-graphic faces, that would be the right step forward.

What do you think of this change? Is it a victory or do you think this is just another marketing gimmick? Let me know in the comments.

*I do not own the pictures used, they were taken from Unsplash.com and others. Naresh Nil Photography Matteo Paganelli on Unsplash Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash