Fair and Lovely: Hindustan Unilever to remove the word ‘Fair’ from its brand

Hindustan Unilever has declared that it will stop using the word ‘Fair’ in ‘Fair and Lovely’. The move comes after the parent company Unilever was under pressure following the drive gathering against racism after killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, USA.

Sunny Jain, President Beauty & Personal Care, said, “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. 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 been working on the evolution of our Fair & Lovely brand, which is sold across Asia, progressively moving to a more inclusive vision of beauty that celebrates skin glow. 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. 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,” adds Jain.

The company will update its brand name, which will be shared once legal supplies are met in each country where the brand is available.

Unilever sells a brand called Fair & Lovely in India and in Asia that makes skin-lightening creams, which laid social-media reaction and more than two dozen change.org petitions calling on the company either to stop the brand or change its name.

Petitioners state the products, long a source of controversy, indorse racism by portraying lighter-skinned people as ‘confident and successful,’ while those with darker skins are depicted as insecure.

As per Euromonitor, Fair & Lovely recorded the sale of more than $500 million last year in India where it commanded a 48.6 percent share.