Unilever is officially rebranding Fair & Lovely, a popular Indian skin-care brand known for its skin-whitening cream. The consumer goods company, which is also behind brands like Dove, Vaseline, and Axe, announced on Thursday that it was dedicating itself to a "more inclusive vision of beauty." [1] Specifically, the brand will remove the words "fair," "light," and "white" from all of its product packageing and marketing, thus changing the name of Fair & Lovely.
Bleaching and whitening skin have long been the norm in Asia [2], perpetuating the dangerous and disturbing idea that lighter skin is more superior. But following the Black Lives Matters protests worldwide, companies across various industries have been forced to acknowledge their roles in marginalizing people of colour, as well as actively work to be antiracist. Consumers have even started and circulated petitions demanding the discontinuation of the brand [3]. As a result, in addition to changing its name, Fair & Lovely and Unilever have committed to evolving its advertising to be more representative of different types of beauty all over the world.
While Unilever has yet to share the brand's new name, the company said in a statement that it will be unveiled within the next few months, once legal regulations are met in relevant countries. This announcement comes after Johnson & Johnson, the company behind Neutrogena and Clean & Clear, recently declared that it would discontinue the production of skin-lightening products [5].