Big Step for Fair Revolution!Unilever Drops 'Fair' From 'Fair & Lovely' skin cream

Mumbai, June 26: In a major step towards the 'fair' revolution and indeed a very 'lovely' gesture, the Indian arm of the global conglomerate Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) announced that they are removing the words ‘fairness’, ‘whitening’ & ‘lightening’ from all its skin lightening products’ packs and communication. The company further added that they would come up with a new name for the product in the upcoming months.

 

 

The move comes after the skin-lightening company faces massive criticism for promoting racist stereotypes linked with darker skin tones in awake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Recently, an online petition was circulated to stop its sales on social media. The beauty market has been receiving a lot of flak from protestors ever since George Floyd's death due to racism.

 

Sunny Jain, President Beauty & Personal Care, explains, “We are fully committed to having a global portfolio of skincare brands that is inclusive and cares for all skin tones, celebrating greater diversity of beauty. 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. As we’re evolving the way that we communicate the skin benefits of our products that deliver radiant and even-toned skin, it’s also important to change the language we use.”

 

“We have been working on the evolution of our Fair & Lovely brand, which is sold across Asia, progressively moving to a more inclusive vision of beauty that celebrates skin glow. We have changed the advertising, communication, and – more recently – the packaging in South Asia, and we think it’s important that we now share the next step that we have been working on: changing the brand name, " added Jain

 

Jain added that they will also continue to evolve our advertising, to feature women of different skin tones, representative of the variety of beauty across India and other countries. We want Fair & Lovely to become a brand that celebrates glowing and radiant skin, regardless of skin tone”.

 

Fair & Lovely has been marketed by Hindustan Unilever over the years as a gateway to skin lightening or whitening. It has been one of the best selling creams in India. As per the serve made by the private company over 90% of Indian women used this cream. It generated about $500 million in sales in India last yearThe product sold in Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the rest of Asia.

 

The company says that the brand’s advertising has been changing since 2014, to a message of women empowerment. Fair & Lovely upholds principles that no association should be made between skin tone and a person’s achievement, potential or worth, And they are aware that historic advertising is available on the internet; these ads are not aligned with the current values of the brand. In early 2019, the brand’s communication moved away from the benefits of fairness, whitening and skin lightening, towards the glow, even tone, skin clarity and radiance, which are holistic measures of healthy skin.

"Fair & Lovely has never been and is not a skin bleaching product. The brand uses a combination of vitamin B3, glycerine, UVA, and UVB sunscreens. This was a much-needed move from harmful chemicals like mercury and bleach, which consumers were using," the statement reads

 

"The brand has been progressively changing its formulation and includes other vitamins like B6, C & E, allantoin, known to improve skin health and protect the skin from external aggressors, UV rays and environmental pollution. The product is designed to improve skin barrier function, improve skin firmness and smoothen skin texture - all of which help enhance radiance and glow, as currently represented in advertising and communication".

 

Earlier, Johnson & Johnson announced this month that it will stop selling skin-whitening creams Neutrogena Fine Fairness and Clear Fairness by Clean & Clear in India and West Asia. “Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names or claims on our Neutrogena and Clean & Clear dark-spot reducer products to represent fairness or white as better than your unique skin tone. This was never our intention — healthy skin is beautiful skin,” said Johnson & Johnson in a statement.