Unilever to rename Fair & Lovely, pulls ads from Facebook

NEW DELHI: The Indian and Bangladeshi arms of consumer giant Unilever said they will rename their locally marketed “Fair & Lovely” skin-lightening cream in the face of global anti-racism protests. The Anglo-Dutch firm – which reportedly raked in some $500 million in revenue from the product in India last year – said it would stop using the word “Fair” in the name as the brand was “committed to celebrating all skin tones”.

The obsession with fair skin is deeply entrenched across Asia, and in some cities it can be difficult to find cosmetics that do not contain some kind of whitening product. In South Asia in particular lighter tones are assumed to reflect higher social class, especially within the India’s complex caste hierarchy.

“We are making our skin care portfolio more inclusive and want to lead the celebration of a more diverse portrayal of beauty,” Sanjiv Mehta, head of Hindustan Unilever, said in a statement.

“The brand has never been and is not a bleaching product,” the statement from Unilever Bangladesh said.

Several companies – including French cosmetics giant L’Oreal – have been criticized recently for skinlightening products after the global rise of the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing in the US of African-American George Floyd. A L’Oreal spokeswoman later said the world’s biggest cosmetics company will remove words referencing “white”, “fair” and “light” from its skin-evening products. Johnson & Johnson said last week it would stop selling some Neutrogena and Clean & Clear products, advertised as dark-spot reducers in Asia and the Middle East.

Skin-lightening creams in India have long been endorsed by major Bollywood stars – including Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Chopra Jonas, married to American singer Nick Jonas, has been pilloried on social media for apparent hypocrisy in supporting the Black Lives Matter movement as well as having served as an ambassador for lightening products.

Unilever’s decision ignited controversy on social media, with users torn between praising the decision and condemning the “whitewash” that saw the name changed but left the product on the shelves. Speaking to the Financial Times, Bollywood actress and director Nandita Das said the move was a step in the right direction that would “trigger conversations” around beauty and color in India.

Unilever said the new brand name would be announced within two months. The Press Trust of India reported that Hindustan Unilever this month began proceedings to patent the name “Glow & Lovely”. In 2018, the company also registered trademarks to market skincare and haircare products under the brand names “Even & Lovely”, “Always Lovely”, “Care & Lovely” and “I Am Lovely”, among others.

Kavita Krishnan, an activist with the All India Progressive Women’s Association, urged the company to acknowledge the “toxic culture” it promoted over decades by equating fairness with beauty, confidence and success. “They have to answer for all of this,” said Krishnan, adding that her dark skin meant she often had shopkeepers try to push such products on her. “They should be dropping the product,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Kavitha Emmanuel, founder of India’s Dark Is Beautiful campaign, welcomed the move, but said the battle was not over. “Is the narrative on skin whitening really being challenged, or is it just a surface level declaration? This we are yet to see,” she said in emailed comments. “It takes more than a change of name to erase the damage.”

“This is a big win, but it’s only the beginning,” Nina Davuluri, who in 2014 became the first Indian American to be crowned Miss America, told Reuters.

“While Unilever removing words such as ‘fair, white, & lightening,’ and changing the ... brand name is a step towards inclusion, it’s only one piece of a much larger fight to end colorism.” Davuluri on Tuesday wrote an open letter to Unilever CEO Alan Jope, urging him to stop production of the products.

Separately, Unilever, home to brands including Ben and Jerry’s and Marmite, said Friday it will stop advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the US until the end of 2020 due to the “polarized election period” there. The Anglo-Dutch firm is the largest of a growing list of brands halting ads on Facebook over the social media titan’s perceived failure to crack down on hate speech and incitements to violence.

“We have taken the decision to stop advertising on @Facebook , @Instagram & @Twitter in the US,” Unilever said in a post on Twitter. “The polarized atmosphere places an increased responsibility on brands to build a trusted & safe digital ecosystem. Our action starts now until the end of 2020.” Unilever, whose brands also include Dove soap, Magnum ice cream, Lipton tea and Knorr, is a major advertiser on social media in the United States.

Facebook said it was taking action against hate speech, adding that it had already banned 250 white supremacist groups, but had more work to do. “We invest billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe and continuously work with outside experts to review and update our policies,” Facebook said in a statement. “We know we have more work to do, and we’ll continue to work with civil rights groups.”

US Telecoms giant Verizon announced on Thursday that it was “pausing” its advertising on Facebook, the latest company to do so after the AntiDefamation League (ADL) called for the boycott as part of the “Stop the Hate for Profit” campaign. The Unilever move however goes beyond Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram to take in Twitter.

A Unilever spokeswoman said that the company had committed to engage with Internet companies “but there is much more to be done, especially in the areas of divisiveness and hate speech during this polarized election period in the US”. “Continuing to advertise on these platforms at this time would not add value to people and society. We will be monitoring ongoing and will revisit our current position if necessary,” the spokeswoman told AFP

Facebook is under increasing pressure for its hands-off approach to misinformation and inflammatory posts, particularly by US President Donald Trump. The social media company made an estimated $70 billion annually from ads, the coalition – which includes the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – behind #StopHateForProfit claimed in a statement on the ADL website.

Sporting goods makers Patagonia, North Face and REI, as well as the freelance staffing agency Upwork have all said they would boycott Facebook. Unilever has taken a series of steps in a bid to improve its image in recent months. The firm said in October it would cut its use of new plastic by half by 2025, while admitting the move was partly to appeal to young, more environmentally-conscious customers. — Agencies