Hindustan Unilever Limited's fairness product, 'Fair and Lovely' for years has promoted racial discrimination and stereotyping the desire for 'lighter skin'. Now, the company has drawn some serious criticism from Indian citizens.
After the protests against HUL's skin-whitening cream, on Thursday, correcting their year-long mistake, Unilever rebranded its fairness cream from 'Fair and Lovely' to 'Glow and Lovely'. And the men's fairness cream was changed to 'Glow and Handsome'.
However, only last week Emami Limited changed their men's grooming product name to 'Emami Glow and Handsome'. After the news broke out, Emami Ltd threatened to take legal action against HUL on using the same name.
Emami Ltd said in a statement, "We are shocked to learn of HUL's decision to rename its men's range of Fair & Lovely as 'Glow & Handsome'. Emami, maker of 'Fair and Handsome' brand of men's grooming products is the market leader in the men's fairness cream with legal ownership of the trademarks." Furthermore, they added, "Although shocked, we are not surprised to note HUL's unfair business practice, which has been prevalent time & again to damage our brand image," Emami said. "It goes to prove Fair and Handsome's strong brand equity in the market that the competition is wary of."
In response to the bitter statement made by Emami Ltd, the HUL spokesman said in an email, "We don't wish to make any comment on the statement made by them (Emami). We are fully conscious of our rights and our position. We will protect it fully in all appropriate forums."
After the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, companies around the world are reconsidering their business strategies for racial injustices. Procter & Gamble, L'Oreal and Johnson & Johnson are the world's biggest advertisers advocating lighter skin, have decided to retreat from the 'skin-whitening' market.
