Fair & Lovely Decides To Let Go Of 'Fair' In A Major Re-Branding Move

Following the recent protests and outrage against racism, skin colorisation, and unfair treatment of the black community, makers of the popular 'fairness cream' Fair & Lovely have decided to let go of the word 'fair', in what is a major re-branding move.

This is indeed a big step forward by Fair & Lovely, which is a very well established name in the Indian market. The product was launched in the year 1975, 45 years ago.

However, it has for long has been criticised of being racist and for unduly promoting fair and bright skin.

Two separate petitions signed by more than 18,000 people in the recent weeks have urged Hindustan Unilever, the parent company of the fairness cream, to stop the production of the product.

"This product has been built upon, perpetuated and benefited from internalised racism and promotes anti-blackness sentiments," one petition says.

The second petition claims that the cream "tells us that there is something wrong with our color, and that we have to be light in order to feel beautiful or in order to feel worthy."

For a very long time now – Fair & Lovely has been associating women's success to fair skin and they have openly broadcasted this through their TV commercials as well. From an air hostess to a doctor, all women with fairer skin have been shown as more successful than darker skin toned girls in the TV ads of the cream.

The brand is now finally thriving to undo all these much criticised actions, although nit by stopping the production of the cream, but by changing its name.

We're committed to a skin care portfolio that's inclusive of all skin tones, celebrating the diversity of beauty. That's why we're removing the words ‘fairness', ‘whitening' & ‘lightening' from products, and changing the Fair & Lovely brand name.https://t.co/W3tHn6dHqE

— Unilever #StaySafe (@Unilever) June 25, 2020

A lot of actors and actresses have taken to social media to applaud Fair & Lovely's re-branding move. Suhana Khan, Bipasha Basu and others have reposted and reshared this news on their social handles.

View this post on Instagram

From the time I was growing up I heard this always,”Bonnie is darker than Soni.She is little dusky na?“Even though my mother is a dusky beauty and I look a lot like her.I never knew why that would be a discussion by distant relatives when I was a kid. Soon at 15/ 16 I started modelling and then I won the supermodel contest ... all newspapers read ... dusky girl from Kolkata is the winner.I wondered again why Dusky is my first adjective ??? Then I went to New York and Paris to work as a model and I realised my skin colour was exotic there and I got more work and attention because of it. Another discovery of mine:) Once I came back into India and film offers started... and finally I did my first film and from an absolute Ajnabee to Hindi film industry ...I suddenly was accepted and loved. But the adjective stayed which I started liking and loving by then.DUSKY girl wows the audiences in her debut film. In most of my articles for all the work I did,my duskiness seemed to be the main discussion.. it attributed to my sex appeal apparently.And sexy in Bollywood started getting accepted widely.I never really understood this... To me sexy is the personality not just the colour of your skin...why my skin colour only sets me apart from the conventional actresses at that time.But that's the way it was.I didn't really see much of difference but I guess people did.There was a strong mindset of Beauty and how an actress should look and behave.I was DIFFERENT as it was pointed out. Didn't really stop me from being and doing all that I loved. Well you see I was confident and proud of who I was from childhood.My skin colour didn't define me ... even though I love it and wouldn't want it to be any different ever. Many skin care endorsements with loads of money was offered to me in the last 18 years ( some were very tempting)... but I stuck to my principle always. All this needs to stop. This wrong dream that we are selling ... that only fair is lovely and beautiful when the majority of the country is brown skinned. It's a deep rooted stigma. It's a mammoth step from the brand... and other brands should follow in the same footsteps soon????

A post shared by bipashabasusinghgrover (@bipashabasu) on Jun 25, 2020 at 8:32pm PDT

With matrimonial sites and newspaper matrimony sections always full of fair skinned girls criterion for a happy successful marriage, the true picture of beauty not vanished from India, but was also cashed upon by makers of such products. With this big step forward, people are now finally looking at a larger picture and accepting all skin colours.