Hindustan Unilever, the Indian subsidiary of the world purchaser products large, introduced Thursday that it would “prevent making use of the word ‘Fair’ in the brand name name” of its array of pores and skin lotions.
The choice was taken to change towards “a a lot more inclusive eyesight of splendor,” the enterprise mentioned in a assertion.
In India, the desire for lighter skin has been a longstanding, contentious issue. Activists who oppose the use of cosmetics for skin-lightening say some of the best-known Bollywood stars have perpetuated the craze by lending their names and faces to advertising and marketing strategies promoting “fairness” creams.
Hindustan Unilever acknowledged in its assertion Thursday that it experienced beforehand performed up “the advantages of fairness, whitening and pores and skin lightening” although advertising and marketing its items.
It said that it sought to move absent from that commencing previous calendar year, by taking away all point out of “text these kinds of as ‘fair/fairness’, ‘white/whitening’, and ‘light/lightening'” on the packaging of the “Fair & Wonderful” skin lotions.
The firm now chooses to emphasize “glow, even tone, pores and skin clarity and radiance” alternatively, it said.
“The model has hardly ever been and is not a bleaching merchandise,” it additional.
Hindustan Unilever payments alone as a person of India’s most important shopper merchandise firms, and promises its items get to nine out of 10 households in the state.
The proposed new manufacturer title is subject matter to regulatory approval, and will possible get influence sometime in the subsequent several months, the firm mentioned Thursday.
— CNN’s Swati Gupta and Monica Sarkar contributed to this report.
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