Unilever to rebrand skin-lightening product in India after wide spread criticism

Unilever, a British-Dutch multinational consumer goods company, has announced that it will be removing words such as fair/fairness’, ‘white/whitening’, and ‘light/lightening’ from its products’ packs and ‘communication in India.

The new initiative is said to be the company’s next step in the evolution of its skincare portfolio to a more inclusive vision of beauty.

Unilever Beauty & Personal Care president Sunny Jain said: “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.”

The company noted that since 2014, it has been making changes to its brand’s advertising, and last year in India, the company said it removed before-and-after impressions and shade guides on its Fair & Lovely pack.

As part of this decision, the Fair & Lovely brand name will be changed in the next few months.

Jain further added: “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.”