The Indian unit of Unilever, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, announced on Thursday, 25 June, that it has decided to drop the word 'Fair' from its 'Fair & Lovely' range of products.
The Fair & Lovely range of HUL has long been criticised for racism through its advertising and general branding that was discriminatory against people with 'non-fair' skin tones.
“We are making our skin care portfolio more inclusive ... a more diverse portrayal of beauty,” Hindustan Unilever Chairman Sanjiv Mehta said in a statement.
"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," said Sunny Jain, president of Unilever's beauty and personal care division, in a separate statement.
This move comes as cosmetic companies across the world are facing major backlash due to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement and are being forced to rethink their marketing strategies and use of terminology.
Earlier this month, Johnson & Johnson announced that it will stop selling skin whitening creams.
‘Dropping Fair Makes No Difference’
However, people on Twitter pointed that while the organisation has decided to remove the word ‘fair’, it is still selling a ‘fairness’ cream.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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