As people around the world try to answer the age old question; what came first, the egg or the hen? In India, we ask, what came first, fairness hacks or our obsession with white skin?
As younglings in India, each of us have had to sit through hours of applying DIY fairness methods like ‘scrubbing gram flour and milk’, ‘turmeric masks’ or have had to actively avoid the god sent taste of chai (Indian tea) and coffee because we were told it would make us dark. The sad thing, however, is not that we couldn’t drink chai, it was that people who told us these hacks genuinely cared about us. It was not their intention to ridicule or make us feel bad about our skin tone, they just didn’t want us to have a hard life. Unfortunately, these attempts only worsened the already low self-esteem and confidence that dark-skinned individuals often have.
The prerequisite requirement to be fair is deep-rooted in our society and has forced many to turn to the booming fairness industry for their solution.
Fairness creams for both men and women are readily available across stores in India
“You watch a movie and you see men trying to impress a fair and thin woman. You realize, you look nothing like her. Then she comes on to your TV and tells you about this cream that she uses to look like that. Boom! You just built an entire industry” - Anjana Panju, describing the fairness industry
These fairness creams are produced by some of the biggest names in the beauty industry; Lakme, Loreal, Olay and Hindustan Unilever. They produce these creams under names such as ‘White Perfect’ or ‘Fair and Lovely’.
A fairness 'meter' that was distributed and advertised (2006) with the product
India’s history with fairness creams started way back in 1952 with a cream named, ‘Afghan Snow’, followed closely by ‘Fair & Lovely’ a Hindustan Unilever Limited brand, in 1975. Soon, other brands followed suit. The popular structure for ads involving these products followed a similar storyline, they would often showcase dark-skinned females unable to find jobs and husbands until they applied the associated fairness cream. This style followed our society well into the 21st century. It was practised despite the 2014 issuing guideline by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) which barred associating skin colour with disadvantageous situations, socio-economic standards, ethnicity or community (KRISHNANKUTTY, 2020).
The 2003 advertisement that Dilpreet mentions, ran on televisions across India till protests ensued, forcing the brand to take it off air. However, multiple other similar ads were running at the same time (BBC, 2003). The fairness cream market in India is estimated to be around Rs 5000 crores (670000 US dollars), this is only including creams and bleaches. It does not account for face washes, soaps and face masks that have been in production with the same intention. ‘Fair and Lovely’ is the undisputed tycoon of the industry with a 70% share within this market. Recently after receiving an exorbitant amount of backlash, they renamed their brand to ‘Glow and Lovely’ and changed their marketing style to ‘anti-pollution’, ‘anti-spots’ and ‘oil control’.
Here’s a snippet of their new advertisement:-
The new 'Glow & Lovely' advertisement (2020) sings tunes about 'don't look at my skin colour'
After 44 years of advertisements asking consumers to chase fairer skin to be accepted into the society, this switch in their marketing made consumers angry, rightly so. For a lot of us, these advertisements were a big part of our childhood, no matter the gender.
(fair & lovely ad from 2011)
For men, these advertisements generally mocked their "manliness" for using fairness creams meant for females while assuring them female attention if they use fairness creams made for men (Johnson, 2007). Advertisements targeting females would play on insecurities of achieving success in a male dominated world and finding a suitable partner for marriage (Why India's Fair Skin Business Is Booming, 2020).
TESTIMONIALS
"That played into my mentality, like 'okay, that's how the media portrays it, that's how people portray it. Maybe, that's how it is."
Arun talks about the effects of watching celebrities endorse fairness creams in advertisements.
"I started regularly applying gram flour mixture on my skin. Eventually, my skin became so dry that I had to go to the doctor"
Chaitanya talks about her experience using DIY fairness methods recommended to her by her neighbour