Indian women applaud Unilever's rebranding of fairness cream

Record ID: 1561419

  • Title: Indian women applaud Unilever's rebranding of fairness cream
  • Date: 8th July 2020
  • Summary: MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA (JULY 07, 2020) (ANI - NO USE INDIA) VEHICLES PLYING ON ROAD / ENTRANCE GATE OF HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED HEADQUARTER SIGNBOARD VARIOUS OF SIGN READING (English): 'HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED'
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2020 14:19
  • Keywords: Fair and Lovely Hindustan Unilever India Mumbai New Delhi fairness cream skin-whitening
  • Location: MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA/NEW DELHI, INDIA/INTERNET
  • City: MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA/NEW DELHI, INDIA/INTERNET
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Race Relations / Ethnic Issues,Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA003CLY7UJ3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hailing the decision by Indian arm of global consumer giant Unilever to rebrand its skin-lightening cream 'Fair & Lovely' to 'Glow & Lovely,' after facing backlash that the name promoted negative stereotypes towards darker skin tones, Indian women said this move would help in breaking racist stereotypes.
    The move comes a week after the maker of Lipton Tea and Dove soap announced that it would drop words such as "fair," "fairness," "white,", "whitening" from its marketing in a push to move away from a single ideal of beauty.
    "One doesn't have to be fair to be beautiful… anybody with dark complexion can also be beautiful. This is a very good initiative to end the colour-based discrimination," said a New Delhi resident, Pragya on Tuesday (July 08).
    Its skin cream for men will be called 'Glow & Handsome', Hindustan Unilever said, and the products with the new brand name will appear on shelves over the next few months.
    Skin-whitening creams have a huge market in South Asia, but the way their makers promote the products have come under question, at a time of worldwide focus on racial injustice following weeks of protests sparked by the May death of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody in the United States.
    HUL's move last week to drop the word "fair" from its "Fair & Lovely" products was considered significant, as it came after years of calls to drop the branding or stop selling the creams, which dominate the skin-lightening cream market in India.
    India's multi-billion dollar skin lightening industry offers an array of products to dark skinned Indians promising a lighter and fairer version of themselves which are also often endorsed by bollywood celebrities.
  • Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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