Most Indians, especially South Indians, have a long cherished desire for fair complexion and

their quest to shed the darker tone have prompted many FMCG behemoths to venture into the
business of manufacturing and marketing skin-lightening products, such as fairness creams,
lotions, cold creams, and soaps.

In particular, fairness creams have been very popular and many FMCG companies have come
out with their own brands mostly for women. For instance, as of 2007, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
(HUL) had a range of products under the brand name ‘Fair & Lovely'.

The growing awareness among men to look good and results of marketing research by the
industry suggesting that 75 percent men were using fairness creams made for women prompted
FMCG companies to manufacture separate fairness products to cater to the needs of both
genders.

On September 5th 2007, when new players entered to venture into the men’s fairness cream
segment, the brands available in market went upto a dozen. Other notable brands included
Cavincare Ltd.'s ‘Fairever', Godrej Group's ‘Fairglow', Elder Group's ‘FairOne' and Emami
Group's ‘Gold Turmeric' and 'Naturally Fair'. In addition to this, many global cosmetic brands
had also begun offering skin-lightening products in the Indian market.

According to industry experts, as of 2007, the emerging skin-lightening products industry in

India was worth US$318 million, and was growing at a fast rate, especially in the male-grooming
sector. Skin-lightening products accounted for almost 40 percent of the Indian cosmetics
industry.

With the number of players increasing day by day, HLL as major player had the strong need to
crash the competitors. This gave rise to a new outlook being given to the various products. They
started claiming that their products when used, will bring in more fairness in just a 4 weeks,
which actually does not happen. Such claims only bring in a positive image and great desire for
their products in the general public but proves to be unethical. To put it in simple words, what
they say is not what happens. This implies that HLL has directly been involved in negitively
effecting the people for it’s own benefits. It also acted as the direction for many other companies.

Apart from creating such wrong notions among the public, HLL also started to use light-skinned
models and even celebrities to endorse their fairness products, leading to a boost in the demand
for skin-lightening products among the target audience. According to many dermatologists, these
creams were only partly effective and merely act as sun-blocking agents, helping in preventing
the skin from getting tanned. HLL was never seen on an ethical stand with such steps being taken
always putting its customers to a back seat.

According to analysts, striking ads in the mass media featuring celebrities, beauty specialists and
dermatologists endorsing these products had helped increase the sales of skin-lightening
products. People believe in claims when they are actually being aired all over the place. But there
was no stopping for such irrelavant claims and hence no saving for innocent users.

HLL has exploited and reinforced the preference for fair skin, portraying it as a necessary
prerequisite for success, and promoted the use of their products as a means of achieving that
ideal. Monetary gains have been made notwithstanding the negative impact these products have
engendered in terms of social consciousness and strengthening of stereotypes.

The outbusrt basically began with the All India Women’s Democratic Association (AIDWA)
lodging a complaint about HLL’s advertisements to the National Human Rights Commission
alleging that their advertisements were demeaning to women.

Also, there is no scientific backing for the manufacturer claims that these products enhance
fairness preventing darkness of skin or removing blemishes. In human skin, the amount of
melanin cannot be reduced by applying fairness cream, bathing with sun blocking soaps or using
fairness talcum. But still, the sales keep increasing because of the big Indian market increasing in
potential day by day, especially the ingnorant lot. This is clearly an issue of utilatarianism where
the company showed mininmum concern for the customers and was concentrating only on its
profits.

Moreover, controlled studies on the efficacy and safety of fairness creams were lacking. Critics
have been more concerned with the socio-psychological effects of these products. Psychologists
have observed that in the Indian context, fairness is associated with power, superiority, and
influence, and hence Indians prefer lighter skin. The introduction of fairness products in India
has only reinforced age-old prejudices that equate fair skin with good looks. This emphasis on a
light skin color and its importance in the marriage market is evident from the matrimonial
columns of newspapers and matrimonial web sites asking for fair brides.

The marketing of fairness cream that plays on people's insecurities and fear of not conforming to
the norm has come in for strong criticism. Some critics are of the view that promoting a
particular body image (fairness in this case) as the preferred one and then selling medicines or
products to help people attain that particular ideal may be regarded as disease mongering.

Various aspects HLL related to fairness :

 Marriage
 Confidence
 Successf in Life
 Interviews
 Better oppurtunities
 Good Commentator
 Actress or model selection
  Freedom under the sun

Such ads spot led the civil rights groups to spit ire at HUL. Critics felt that celebrities, being role
models, should not endorse products that reinforce such stereotypes. In this connection columnist
Shailaja Bajpai of The Indian Express, wrote, "When the reigning star of Hindi cinema publicly
endorses a cream that openly advocates fairness, lightness of skin as desirable, nay, necessary, it
is a damn bad show. How could he do it?" However, marketing experts contend that the issue is
being blown out of proportion.

These products and their advertisements reinforce an old Southeast Asian bias that you have to
be fair to be beautiful... Sunscreens, skin-whitening, fairness creams - they are all the same."

- Prahlad Kakkar, Advertising Consultant and Ad Guru, in 2007.

"Everyone wants to look better. What's the difference between a woman using lipstick,
Europeans using skin-tan lotion, and an Indian skin-lightening cream?"

- Alyque Padamsee, Advertising Consultant and Ad Guru, in 2007.

Here is a statement from the Vice President of Marketing for HLL:

“The purpose of this marketing promotion plan is to reposition Fair & Lovely in the Indian
Market. While we have successfully gained a significant portion of the market, it is in HHL’s
best interest to create a new way of promoting ourselves to Indian women. In past years we have
made many promotional mistakes that could end up hurting the Fair & Lovely brand image. Our
campaign was called insulting, unethical, racist, and an inaccurate portrayal of women in India.
We have the biggest share of the advertising segment on Indian television with nearly 84.4% and
in India the popularity of a product depends totally on the success of its advertising”.

This clearly indicates the attitude of the company.

This begs us to the question: what are the ethics of global branding? As multinationals become
more powerful than governments, what are the core principles that we as global and local
customers should be able to hold them to? Considering that some of these companies have GDPs
higher than that of small countries, it is scary how unregulated international advertising is. It is
left to the individual customer to educate herself and make socially responsible choices.