Consumer goods giant Unilever has announced it would change the brand name of its Fair & Lovely skincare cream and shun attributes relating to 'whitening' and 'fairness' following a petition that called for banning the product in wake of the anti-racist and blackness movement.
"We think it’s important that we now share the next step that we have been working on: changing the brand name," Sunny Jain, President Beauty & Personal Care, Unilever said in a statement to the press on Thursday.
The evolution to a more inclusive vision of beauty that celebrates and cares for all skin tones, and no longer uses the words ‘white/whitening’, ‘light/lightening or ‘fair/fairness’, will be a policy for all beauty & personal care brands, the statement added. "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," Jain added. "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."
The development comes following a petition on Change.org, wherein thousands of people signed the petition that called upon the company to stop producing and marketing Fair & Lovely, reassign employees associated with the product, and issue a statement acknowledging the part it may have played in indoctrinating an anti-blackness sentiment.
Earlier, the anti-black movement came to the fore under the slogan "Black Lives Matter", following the merciless death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US on May 25.
"We think it’s important that we now share the next step that we have been working on: changing the brand name," Sunny Jain, President Beauty & Personal Care, Unilever said in a statement to the press on Thursday.
The development comes following a petition on Change.org, wherein thousands of people signed the petition that called upon the company to stop producing and marketing Fair & Lovely, reassign employees associated with the product, and issue a statement acknowledging the part it may have played in indoctrinating an anti-blackness sentiment.
Earlier, the anti-black movement came to the fore under the slogan "Black Lives Matter", following the merciless death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US on May 25.