Unilever To Rebrand Itself After Major Backlash, Plans To Drop 'Fair' From Skin Care Cream

Skincare cream firm 'Fair & Lovely' has decided to evolve its skincare portfolio to embrace a more inclusive vision of beauty.

(Source- PTI)

New Delhi: After being massively criticized for promoting negative stereotypes against the dark-skinned people, the Indian unit of Unilever has announced to rebrand its skincare cream 'Fair & Lovely' by dropping the word 'Fair' from the name. (Also READ: Chris Gayle Expresses Anger, Dismay Over George Floyd's Death; Says Racism Does Exist In Cricket Too) In a statement released on its official website, Sunny Jain, the President of Beauty & Personal Care, said that the firm recognise how words such as ‘fair’, ‘white’ and ‘light’ promote a singular ideal of beauty. For the same, the company has decided to evolve its skincare portfolio to embrace a more inclusive vision of beauty. “We are fully committed to having a global portfolio of skin care 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," Jain said. He further added, "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."

Explaining the new branding outlines, Jain told that the company has changed the advertising, communication and – more recently – the packaging in South Asia. He said, "We think it’s important that we now share the next step that we have been working on: changing the brand name. 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." The comes at the backdrop of uprising rage against the racial discrimination and the killing of African-American man George Floyd that called in for a massive protest on social media with trends like "BlackLivesMatter".