Girls nowadays don’t dream of their charming prince riding on a white horse in search of a beautiful wife – they dream of Rakesh Roshan getting off his white car to offer them a role in his next movie – either ways they are swept off their feet!
Times are achanging!
And the fairness creams market keeps track of every single change that is happening in society – every need and every dream of their core target audience – young girls with dark skin – who dream of a “better life” – a life which only fairer skin can lead them to – which in turn only fairness creams can help them achieve!
Now to look at some of these changes in the fairness creams market:
o Skin care and not just fairness : With more exposure to sophisticated products and foreign brands (through communication, if not actual product experience), the target audience (the young girls mentioned before) is demanding more than basic fairness – fairness creams no longer call themselves just that – they are now positioned as ‘skin care’ products – exactly how much care does the skin get through cheap and harmful bleach is anyone’s guess! in any case, with names like Fair and Lovely, Fairglow, Naturally Fair and Fairever, there can be no doubt in anyone’s minds what exactly these products promise – let no one be fooled!
o Going the ‘natural’ route : chemical is out, natural is in – look at the number of products around that promise ‘natural ingredients’ – if one promises vitamin M, the other conveys that the product is bursting at the seams with saffron or milk or honey or whatever it takes to bleach the skin in six quick weeks – leading to a fairer and married-to-the-man-of-your-dreams you…
o Specialty products : there are now variants to suit every skin typeย and every need – fairness creams are now available for oily skin, for winter use, for removing marks – you name it… there is even a fairness creams for elbows yes, you read it right – elbows!
o Dream career and dream man : And most importantly, recent ads for fairness creams are not centred just around the dream-man-marriage theme (although that remains the ultimate objective) – but have a “career orientation” – you can now be an air hostess or a popular cricket commentator – depending on the flavour of the month – or you can even be a film star!
Sure, times are achanging!. But some things never change – like the desire for a son… again advertising (especially in this category) has exploited this weakness quite cleverly – it is possible to almost look into the mind of the father who has been ‘cursed’ย not just with a daughter, but a dark-skinned daughter – who cannot reach that well-paying dream job or cannot even be married off easily – just the words in the ad kaash mera beta hota encapsulates every emotion that this market thrives on or is it ‘preys’ on?
As long as the search for the fair bride remains, fairness creams will continue to rule the roost and they will continue to exploit every single weakness in their consumers and in ways that the consumer herself does not know she is being exploited. If society has even an inkling of such a notion, such ads reinforce these notions – do not forget, dark skin is ugly and will stand in the way of all your dreams…
Following protests from all quarters, marketers have now tried various things to repair their damaged image – some of the ads now try to soften the blow – he is lucky to have you, says one ad – sure, the ‘boy’ is lucky but remember this bit of luck happens after a magical transformation has taken place on the girl’s face – thanks to the latest fairness cream – to an already vulnerable young woman, such a strong reinforcement spells zero self esteem – so much for lucky boys!
Another laughable effort is the Fair and Lovely Foundation – which aims to “promote economic empowerment of women” – all other things remaining constant, a fairer skin leads to economic empowerment?
There is nothing that cannot be changed goes the line for a popular fairness cream brand – nothing, it looks like, except the colonial hang-up on fair skin.
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Debashish had added some interesting facts in his Hindi translation – including the information that in the skincare products market, more than 60% products are aimed at fairness. And that companies claim that nearly 25% of fairness cream users are men. I had written about this in my earlier post on elbow creams; if this statistic intrigues you, check it out…
Charu,
The interesting thing is that in the States, the ethnic look is popular. Latina, Philippina, African American. We have a friend who was born in India and grew up in the States wishing she had fairer skin. Now, however, she’s quite happy with her ethnic look.
Unfortunately, I think marketing is the same everywhere. “To be happy, you need to be someone else. Fairer, thinner, longer hair, etc.” If people were happy as who they are, the marketing industry would implode. It’s not in their best interest to encourage women to be happy with who they are or what they look like. Sad.
Nice analysis on this fairness aspect,Charu!! Yeah Debashish is right..Usage among men is increasing…
thanks for this excellent post, charu. racism is alive and well in india!
Not just racism but the Indian version of the beauty cult. Men do buy in but I’ve yet to see them as affected as the dark-skinned girls (some absolutely lovely) who feel so ugly and unwanted… and being a girl can be bad enough in this part of the world.
ah the fairness creams racket. its a democratic evil: overcome all barriers of education, language, socioeconomic background… makes you hopping mad doesnt it!
someone SHD start a “brown is beautiful” campaign here. god knows we need it.
Hi Charu, very interesting article. Yes it is a pity that many products today are playing up people’s weaknesses in a regressive manner. However, are only brands and advertisers to blame. As reserchers more often than not it is us who make the recommendations as to what motivations would have the most pester power. In that, don’t we share part of the responsibility?
Patricia, you are right – the ethnic look is popular – in fact, the few models from india who have made it big in the international scene are all “blessed” with dusky skin! And yes, advertisers and marketers understand and prey upon our innermost insecurities and fears…
And Aparna, agree totally – that is why I sometimes hate my job – I have another post coming up on this soon ๐
Gangadhar, Uma, thanks – this is something I feel strongly about and as Aparna here says, I have been a minor part of this racket – indirectly… but it rankles
Eye spy, men ar afected by their complexion but the ‘pressure’ on them to look fair is nowhere close to those experienced by women – yes, being a girl can be bad enough – and being a dark-skinned one can be hell….
M, Yo! brown IS beautiful ๐ the whole fairness racket sucks…
I read recently that “Fair and handsome” launched to cater to the needs of the Men who have been using “Fair and lovely” kind of creams in the past.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/06/16/stories/2005061602140400.htm
i find these “racism” and “playing up peopleรขโฌโขs weaknesses” comments ridiculous. Its always about the “Other side that is greener”. People from western countries try to get dark, by tanning. And people from india try to get fair, thru fairness creams. Where is racism and weakness here?
Nowadays ebonies are more in demand! ๐
It is not colour of the outer epidermis per se, which decides the beauty, but a host other attributes like grace, personal hygene, ebullience, animatedness, sence of humour, smartness, interpersonal relationship, leadership, empathy etc.
With normally unlookable physical features, one can still win the attention of all by developing a powerful and arresting personality.
Is there any cream in the market to achieve it?
Marketing 101 : Appeal to people’s insecurities / fears. Be it marketing a cream (you are ugly, use this cream), marketing a car (you will die if your car doesnt have 20 airbags), marketing drugs ( you cant get it up, hence your life sucks and your wife’s gonna leave you), or marketing a war.
The stupidest thing is the confidence factor that they attach with being “fair and lovely”. Have you seen that ad where a girl can reject the dowry-hungry in-laws because she is fair? Or a girl who can fight for the rights because she is fair? I think self-respecting females should sue these companies for insulting their intelligence — something like mann hani.
Kaps, I read about it too but I don’t think it wil work in the market – am thinking about it – maybe I will elaborate in another post soon!
SK, obviously not – which is why marketers of such products link attributes like confience and personality with external ‘beauty’, i.e. fair skin….
Dregg, absolutely… if there is no insecurity, then ceate one!
Amrit, I have seen the ad where the girl rejects her to be dowry-hungry in-laws – yes, you are right – as it because she was fair that she could do it – what if she had been dark-skinned?
Senthil, where do i begin to even respond to you? In the west, have you heard of girls getting ‘rejected’ and staying unmarried because of their skin cokour – dark or fair whatever they choose to be – or having to pay heftier dowries than usual because then a compromise is possible in the marriage market?
Have you heard of girls stealing money from their homes to go out and buy such creams – I have met such a girl…
There is a difference between choosing and wanting something – as in case of westerners wanting darker skin – and remember that too temporarily – not forever – a tan is a been-there-done-that symbol… and being forced to become something or aspire for something that is just not physically possible – beause society discriminates against dark-skinned people…
this is racism – think carefully about i
Great post Charu…
But on the whole I believe the darker skinned people have always got a much better deal in India (except LatAm may be where integration has been full). How Fair and Lovely causes economic empowerment? Thats simple isn,t it. The seller of these creams will be more empowered the more they sell, right?
CHARU.. WATCH OUT.. THE GOOGLE ADS TO THE RIGHT OF YOUR BLOG ARE PROMOTING THE SAME KIND OF CREAMS….YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANT HIDE ๐
Charu I do not know how you are attributing the problem of a soceity to the exploitation of marketing. Nothing operates in isolation, marketting is also same. If your soceity has a problem with clean drinking water, you get kinleys ads. If your soceity has a problem with proper roads, you get MRF ads. Sameway, if your society has a problem with dark skins, you get fair n lovely. I do not know where is racism here.
Shivaji, why do you think darker skinne dpeople have got a better deal in India? surprising to me…?
and yes, google does the most embarrassing things sometimes :))
Senthil, society also has a problem with the girl child – will it be okay if marketing companies use this to promote – brzenly – the “superior qualities” of a boy child? It is a sick attitude – this whole colours of skin thing – and what companies like Hindustan Levers do is nothing ahort of exploiting this…
Senthil,
I sais that the dark skinned have got a much better deal in India in a relative sense. And what I had in mind was the racism, appartheid and slavery that reduced dark skinned people to existence worse than those of animals in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Middle East. Even now an average black is economically and educationally way behind the whites in these places. In India the only discrimination probably comes during marriage (no longer in movies and fashion) and there too its not so big a problem
gr8 article buddy… seems u hav done a thorough research … hope people like u can change the traditional Indian mindset of being obsessed with fair skin … lookin forward to many such articles frm u.
Shivaji, I understtod your commment to mean that in India, the dark skinned have got a better deal than the fairer ones! but I dont agree that it is not a big problems during marriage – of course there are compromise solutions possible by paying a fatter dowry… and even in modelling and films, see the proportion of dark skinned women as compared to the fairer ones – the dark ones are few and are more “case studies” – see this in the light of the average Indian skin tone…
thanks Ketan, but I have no such hopes ๐
Hi Charu,
Look, I’ve been blogging too much and my elbows are black and blue from resting on the table. Do you know anywhere where I can get a good deal on fairness elbow cream?
In all seriousness, I loved the post. And I’m glad to know that others are writing about this fairness obsession. Keep up the good work.
Hi Charu (may i call you Charu?),
I was just going through your Flickr photostream to see earlier photos that i hadn’t yet seen and came across the photo ayurvedic cream linking me to this posting. It is so interesting–skin color ‘competition’. Where i grew up in the midwest US (Chicago, IL), it was definitely cool to get a “tan”, the darker the better, for those of us from the white Jewish and Wasp-y suburbs. Nowadays, of course, we are aware that tans can cause skin cancer.
On another note, my favorite bath soap, which i have used for years, is an Ayurvedic soap called Chandrika that I buy for 85 cents at the natural food store. I like it because, to me, it has a pleasing, fresh fragrance, it is green (!), and it is made without animal products. I also use an Ayurvedic toothpaste called Vicco which costs between $2.95 and $3.50 (depends where you buy the tube). I mention the costs of these products as a comparison to the cost in India where these two products are probably much less expensive.
p.s. i referenced your blog site and flickr site on my blog post today (9/26/05) about my blogging experience.
Nicole, funny how conceptions of what is cool and therefore aspirational differ across cultures – I remember once when a marketing company tried to introduce a beauty product – some sort of glimmer powder – to give a “freshly tanned effect” or some such thing – and I just laughed on their faces when I heard the product concept. Imagine that in India where people are forever trying to become fairer and remove their tan!
I understand your point about the ayurvedic products – in India, most of the popular brands are priced moderately – except those which make ayurveda and natural ingredients their selling point – brands like Shehnaz and Biotique which are priced very high…
(I just went to your blog and responded to your post – thanks ๐ it was very nice of you)
By the way–a strange thing is that here in Arizona where the sun shines about 300 days a year, there are tanning stores. I’ve seen these places in California, too, where people pay to get tanned by a machine. The machines are supposed to filter out dangerous ultraviolet rays. On a related note (well, sort of), I find it very strange and wasteful that most people here use gas or electric dryers to dry their clothes when an hour or two in the summer sunshine and a few hours the rest of the year is all it takes…. I hope you are doing alright with the transition into your new job. ๐
I liked the article and all the thoughts that have been put in by many people…
i think that fairness is being sold using the idea of acceptability that at some point of time every one struggles with but with the ” commendalble ” advertising marketing it has worked a lot on the minds of people that has made a shift in the idea of personal self and the social self and hence the idea of acceptability ……it is not about who you are but about what kind of consumer you are along with which supposedly you buy a certain kind of self………
the fair and lovely cream and its ….opponent clones in the market are playing up with a racist idea (as mentioned earlier ) that had it to be done away long ago .. its somewhat like the producers will not let the idea die or there will be no market ( as mentioned earlier) in every sense teh hiearchies will be maintained so that “they” profit out of it……..
have you seen this site http://www.whiterskin.com ?/?? Its crazy people actualy want to buy stuff like this
Hey Vikrum,
Really interesting post- I became very interested in this fairness obsession in India myself after my last holiday there, where I was bombarded with media images and advertisement, and ‘please help’ letters about how terrible it was to be dark. I actually decided to do my year 12 major work on this topic, so any comments from you (or from any of the other posters who have commented) would be much appreciated, as I could use it as direct primary research for my project. it would be really great if you could visit http://elizapip.blogspot.com/, and leave any comment about this issue at all, so perhaps I would be able to get a discussion started. Thanks a lot, eliza