Is Dropping The Word ‘Fair’ Enough to Fight Fair & Lovely Biases?

After four decades of promoting fairness, ‘Fair & Lovely’ has finally decided to drop the word ‘Fair’.

After four decades of promoting the idea of beauty and fairness, ‘Fair & Lovely’ has finally decided to drop the word ‘Fair’ from its product. Is it enough?

(Photo: The Quint)

After four decades of promoting the idea of beauty and fairness, 'Fair & Lovely' has finally decided to drop the word 'Fair' from its product.

The Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, Hindustan Unilever, said that it will rename its skin-lightening products to make it more "inclusive and diverse" and that they are "committed to a skin care portfolio that's inclusive of all skin tones, celebrating the diversity of beauty."

With recent protests against racial injustice in the US triggering fresh debates on social media against colourism, brands like Unilever that have been promoting fairness in South Asian, Middle Eastern and African markets have found themselves under scrutiny yet again.

In response to the George Floyd protests, last week, US multinational company Johnson and Johnson had announced it would no longer be producing or selling two of its products, Neutrogena Fine Fairness and Clean & Clear Fairness lines, both very popular in India and other Asian countries, following which 'Fair & Lovely' also decided to take the ‘progressive’ step.

But, is changing the name of a product enough to counter ingrained standards of beauty, racism and colourism?