With the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement on the rise after the death of George Floyd in the US, many leading companies have been re-branding themselves to show their support for the cause.
The death of George Floyd has been termed as a result of the age-old racial discrimination that the African-Americans or non-white people have been facing for so long in the US.
However, India has had its share of racial disparities since the beginning. With matrimonial sections demanding a fair and beautiful girl or a fair and handsome boy, to the leading skin lightening cosmetics’ brands advertising how to get a job after using their product for 4 weeks, the notion that the fair skin is superior has been rooted deep down in the society for centuries now.
Acknowledging the ongoing debate on the cruelty of the entire concept, Hindustan Unilever has recently announced that the company has decided to drop the word ‘Fair’ from their famous skin lightening face creme ‘Fair&Lovely’. The product will now be called ‘Glow&Lovely’.
The men’s range of the same product which was earlier called ‘Fair&Handsome’ will now be called ‘Glow&Handsome’.
https://twitter.com/BTVI/status/1278686892930723841
HUL in its official press release has said that they are aiming for a more inclusive range of products in the future which will be the next step in the evolution of its skincare portfolio.
While the brand might have had all the good intentions behind the name change, the internet had a lot to say about their initiative. In their opinion, changing the mere name of the product has no significance if the skin lightening product is still in the market.
The flood of memes that followed on Twitter post the announcement was fun to watch too.
https://twitter.com/Fabinthin04/status/1278675471878651904
Me trying to find the basic difference between Fair & Lovely and Glow & Lovely. pic.twitter.com/0n5Ug2GcCx
— Swati Mehta (@Swaahti) July 2, 2020
https://twitter.com/mahakvyas/status/1278694072304259072
HUL using synonyms of problematic words to pass them off as publically acceptable:
# Glow & Lovely pic.twitter.com/OHd78IwFjF— Resh (@medschoolvictim) July 2, 2020
https://twitter.com/chaos_co_/status/1278682491008593920
