Monkey

I am, myself, Indian and have faced the issue of skin tone (in that my mom is very fair and my dad is not and I have a lifetime of “too bad you got your mom’s beautiful features and your dad’s yucky skin tone” behind me) and the skin bleaching creams in India disgust me. I recall at least a couple of sites that discuss desi issues linking back to my post.

Unfortunately I can’t swear off unilever products entirely because my family and I, despite wonderful health otherwise, have horrible dermatalogical issues so I would look like a lizard if I were to use anything other than Dove. I’ve even had to give up perfumes (recently) and like my mom, will eventually have to give up most makeup other than lipstick and kohl. So I use Dove right now but it doesn’t change my opinion that their real beauty and image challenging ads are a lot of hot air and nothing more than clever marketing. And that’s okay, I’m very business oriented and appreciate marketing but I don’t get all excited about them the way I used to before NYT Business published that article. To me it’s just a good ad campaign, like those Vodka ads.

http://tinyurl.com/2ncnen

It says this: “Avon, L’Oréal, Ponds, Garnier, the Body Shop and Jolen are selling lightening products and all of them face stiff competition from a local giant, Fair and Lovely, a Unilever product that has dominated the market for decades.”

It sounds like Unilever is not the only product like that. It does sound disgusting, but I wanted to make sure I hunted down the article in case other readers were curious. It’s not just Unilever,

” ‘Half of the skin care market in India is fairness creams,’ said Didier Villanueva, country manager for L’Oréal India, and 60 to 65 percent of Indian women use these products daily. L’Oréal entered this specific market four years ago with Garnier and L’Oréal products, but so far has a small market share, he said.”

And then later:

“The All India Democratic Women’s Association has been monitoring advertisements since the 1990s and gets particularly angry with ads that convey the message “if she is not fair in color, she won’t get married or won’t get promoted,” said Manjeet Rathee, a spokeswoman for the association’s media group. The current crop of television ads for fairness creams are “not as demeaning” as ones in the past, she said.”

So – just wanted to provide more information. It sounds like Unilever’s products have the most disgusting advertising, but they aren’t the only ones marketing the same idea: fair skin is better. And maybe the outcry has made a difference since it seems some agree the current ads are better. Also – it looks like Unilever has begun marketing the same product to men – so it’s not just women.

Anyway – just wanted to make sure all of the information was there in case anyone wanted it. Thanks for motivating me to research it Monkey.

Anyway, I’ve never been able to look at their ads the same way again.

I’m so afraid for the little girl I’ve got growing in here!