Unilever Rebrands Skin Whitening Cream, But Critics Cry Foul: 'Still A Whitening Cream'
Global consumer brand Unilever has announced a new name for its skin-whitening cream Fair & Lovely in response to criticism that the product promotes racist colorism in South Asia and the Middle East, but critics say it’s not enough.
The new name will be Glow & Lovely, the company’s local division announced in a statement distributed to Indian media on Thursday.
“Over the next few months, Glow & Lovely will be on the shelves and future innovations will deliver on this new proposition,” Hindustan Unilever said, also announcing that the men’s version of the cream would become Glow & Handsome.
News of the rebranding drew flak and a wide array of memes on social media, including from Indian film director Shekhar Kapur and “Game of Thrones” actor Nathalie Emmanuel. Many pointed out the colorism rampant in India, one of the cream’s primary markets, and said replacing “fair” with the word “glow” did little to change the fact that the product was still designed to alter one’s skin tone.
So Fair and Lovely will now be called Glow and Lovely? C’mon Hindustan Lever. For years you’ve been profiting by destroying our nation’s young girl’s self worth by making rude comments about dark skin.
Now prove your ‘intentions’ by having a dark skinned girl on your packaging.— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) July 2, 2020
Ooorrrrrr ... we could throw the whole product away.... because dark skin is beautiful and there is no need for this poison... or it’s messaging... ✌🏽✌🏿✌🏾
Indian whitening cream renamed as Glow & Lovely following BLM protests https://t.co/10lUCTjQ9Z— Nathalie Emmanuel (@missnemmanuel) July 2, 2020
Fair & Lovely renaming the same skin-lightening shit "Glow & Lovely" following BLM protests is like selling a sugary choco drink as a ~nutrient-packed growth aid for kids~ and calling it Bournvita, but way more obvious. At least stay honest in your continued racism & colourism.
— Imaan Sheikh 🌈 (@sheikhimaan) July 2, 2020
IT STILL A WHITENING CREAM 🤡🤡🤡🤡
— Sugar~Belle 🤍 (@Michell02934628) July 2, 2020
This is a classic example of Woke Capitalism !!!!
Changing a word won't erase the deep-rooted biases that have been perpetuated for years bcse of such products that being beautiful is to have fairer skin, which is wrong and racist.
Glow & Lovely is still a skin bleaching cream. pic.twitter.com/o6Jkvsg9lF— Advaid അദ്വൈത് 🌹 (@Advaidism) July 2, 2020
#FairandLovely#GlowandLovely
"Glow & Lovely"
1st pic : Fair & Lovely
2nd pic : Glow & Lovely pic.twitter.com/iCJryrPCFm— Veesh Key (@VeeshKey) July 2, 2020
Fair & Lovely cream will now be called Glow & Lovely. pic.twitter.com/OfjZZxtULN
— Pulkit Kochar (@kocharpulkit) July 2, 2020
#FairandLovely and #GlowandLovely are arguing for who is best pic.twitter.com/MHBqIxjTS8
— Sociopath Memer (@sociopath_ladka) July 2, 2020
The “Glow & Handsome” variant of the name also drew a response from Indian health care company Emami, which produces a product called Fair And Handsome and said it had already trademarked the name “Emani Glow & Handsome.”
A Emami spokesperson told local media that the company was consulting legal experts and said Hindustan Unilever was engaging in an “unfair business practice, which has been prevalent time [and] again to damage our brand image.”
Unilever first announced intentions to review its branding last week, explaining that the company was removing the terms “fair/fairness,” “white/whitening” and “light/lightening” from its goods. The move came amid renewed focus on the product as Black Lives Matter and racial injustice protests continued to take place across the United States ― a cause supported on social media by a number of Indian celebrities, including Priyanka Chopra, who has promoted skin lightening creams in the past.
Products like Fair & Lovely have long been criticized as racist for promoting light-colored skin as the standard of beauty in South Asia and other regions with histories of colorism.
Sunny Jain, president of Unilever’s Beauty & Personal Care unit, said in a press release issued at the time that words such as “fairness” “suggest[ed] a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right, and we want to address this.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.