Today, I would like to divert the mind of the readers towards an issue existing in our society and would like to raise my opinions on the same.
Months back, in the light of #BlackLivesMatter, HUL decided to rename its best selling product from ‘Fair and Lovely’ to ‘Glow and Lovely’ in order to remove nomenclature that propagated racial stereotypes which could even convince a large section of our society.
But is that enough? Would changing the name of the product change the mindsets of the people? Or would it change the purpose of the product? Let’s not be too quick in celebrating this rechristening.
Unilever renamed its "Fair & Lovely" skin lightening cream in India to "Glow & Lovely" after backlash.
61% of Indian women use such products. Other brands like L'Oreal say they will also no longer use words like "fair" and "white" to market them (but will still sell them). pic.twitter.com/VWD66B3GnB
— AJ+ (@ajplus) July 2, 2020
The purpose of the product was to lighten up the skin colour of the people and it still remains the same. ‘Fair and Lovely’ had always made promises to the Indian consumer that it would help lighten both the skin colour of the people and the adjoining burden of having darker skin tones.
The advertisements which reflects the very purpose, agenda, and aim of the product makes the fact quite evident as how ‘Fair and Lovely’ made no changes in spreading racist ideas. ‘Fair and Lovely’ never back stepped in using some derogatory terms for itself like ‘flawless’, ‘radiant’, ‘blemish-free’ with an intention of proving, targeting or calling people with darker skin tones unacceptable and ugly.
If the ideas and the purpose still remains the same, then dropping the unacceptable tag just for the sake of convincing the public that it’s not racist will not help to bring about a change in a real sense. It will still remain a ‘fairness’ cream, no matter what they call it. Praising HUL and being fully satisfied after the name change of ‘Fair and Lovely’ to ‘Glow and Lovely’ is like glorifying people (the makers/HUL) who are doing the bare minimum.