Facial lightening brand Fair & Lovely has announced it will be changing its name ‘to be more inclusive’.
The beauty label, made by Unilever, has faced criticism for years and recently a petition was launched to stop product circulation.
Since Johnson & Johnson announced the discontinuation of its Neutrogena and Clean & Cear lightening creams, consumers also called for Fair & Lovely to follow suit.
Campaigners have criticised the brand for promoting light skin and creating negative stereotypes about darker skin.
Despite calls to end it, Fair & Lovely, which operates largely in India, has also been popular across Africa and other Asian countries.
As of 2012, Unilever’s infamous product occupied 80% of the fairness cream market in India and is one of Hindustan Unilever’s most successful cosmetics lines.
Announcing a more inclusive vision of beauty, Unilever said it would be dropping ‘fair/fairness’, ‘white/whitening’, and ‘light/lightening’ from its products’ packs and communication.
Sunny Jain, President Beauty and Personal Care, explained in a press release sent to Metro.co.uk: ‘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 tone skin, it’s also important to change the language we use.
‘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.’
Since other major brands have been criticised following mainstream conversations on racism, Uniliver said it is also looking to diversify its advertising.
Jain added: ‘We 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.’
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/25/fair-lovely-change-name-following-racism-backlash-12902877/
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