Unilever to end references to whitening; will rename Fair & Lovely

Unilever has announced that it will be renaming Fair & Lovely as it looks to end references to ‘whitening’, ‘lightening’ or ‘fairness’.

 

The words will be removed from its products’ packs and communication. 

 

The new brand name for Fair & Lovely will be revealed in the next few months once several legal and regulatory requirements are met in each country where the brand is available. 

 

Sunny Jain, president - beauty and personal care, said, “We are fully committed to having a global portfolio of skin care brands that is inclusive and cares for all skin tones, celebrating greater diversity of beauty. We recognise that the use of the words ‘fair’, ‘white’ and ‘light’ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right, and we want to address this. As we’re evolving the way that we communicate the skin benefits of our products that deliver radiant and even tone skin, it’s also important to change the language we use.”

 

He added, “We have been working on the evolution of our Fair & Lovely brand, which is sold across Asia, progressively moving to a more inclusive vision of beauty that celebrates skin glow. We have changed the advertising, communication and – more recently – the packaging in South Asia, and we think it’s important that we now share the next step that we have been working on: changing the brand name. We will also continue to evolve our advertising, to feature women of different skin tones, representative of the variety of beauty across India and other countries. We want Fair & Lovely to become a brand that celebrates glowing and radiant skin, regardless of skin tone,” added Jain.

 

HUL had removed the before-after impressions and shade guides last year. With this move it's looking at more inclusiveness.