In an attempt to inclusivity, HUL rebrands ‘Fair & Lovely’ as ‘Glow & Lovely’; gets called out!

By Malvika Mistry

on July 03, 2020

Not just the United States of America, the racism debate has now started in India questioning the ‘standards’ set for beauty. After Johnson & Johnson, Hindustan Unilever dropped ‘fair’ form its infamous ‘Fair & Lovely’ cream as a part of re-branding activity.

On Thursday, the giant FMCG brand announced a new name for its popular skin lightening brand. Yes, the infamous ‘Fair & Lovely’ will now be called ‘Glow & Lovely’!

We’re committed to a skin care portfolio that's inclusive of all skin tones, celebrating the diversity of beauty. That’s why we’re removing the words ‘fairness’, ‘whitening’ & ‘lightening’ from products, and changing the Fair & Lovely brand name.https://t.co/W3tHn6dHqE

— Unilever #StaySafe (@Unilever) June 25, 2020

Meanwhile, the men’s range of its product, ‘Fair & Handsome’ would be rebranded as ‘Glow & Handsome.’ ‘Over the next few months, Glow & Lovely will be on the shelves, and future innovations will deliver on this new proposition, HUL said in its statement.

However, seems like netizens are displeased with this rebranding. Twitteratis felt that omitting certain words that stereotype the beauty is not enough. Some feel that instead of changing the name, the product should be taken off the rack while others started a troll fest on the same!

#FairAndLovely to #GlowandLovely seriously... Racism will never end unless they promote fair skin. Stop it guys.

— Divya Ayyamperumal (@divyaaperumal) July 3, 2020

Neither it can make you fair nor glow.
But convincingly it makes you fool and how #GlowandLovely

— Sheetal Mishra (@itssitu) July 3, 2020

Don’t let the name change for #FairandLovely fool you! The new #GlowandLovely still serves the same purpose: to make money off of #colorism.

Skin lightening creams are a multi-billion dollar industry. Do you think HUL is willing to give that up? https://t.co/1d5ZHpFo7y

— Dr Slaughter-Acey (@DrSlaughter99) July 3, 2020

HUL to "Fair" from fair and lovely and changing it to " glow and lovely" pic.twitter.com/Z0EkCe9Xu1

— Sara-Castic (@shuru_tea) July 2, 2020

Fair and Lovely is now Glow and Lovely. This is like renaming Coronavirus to Covid-19

— Trendulkar (@Trendulkar) July 2, 2020

Public: Fair and Lovely skin whitening products promote colorism and justifies Indians' obsession with fairness.

Hindustan Unilever: Message recieved. We'll now call it #glowandlovely. Problem solved! pic.twitter.com/KgjeFCmt6r

— Megha Varier (@varier_megha) July 2, 2020

Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and GOT fame Nathalie Emmanuel also expressed their displeasure on the same and asked the brand to get a grip.

Ooorrrrrr ... we could throw the whole product away.... because dark skin is beautiful and there is no need for this poison... or it’s messaging...

Indian whitening cream renamed as Glow & Lovely following BLM protests https://t.co/10lUCTjQ9Z

— Nathalie Emmanuel (@missnemmanuel) July 2, 2020

So Fair and Lovely will now be called Glow and Lovely? C’mon Hindustan Lever. For years you’ve been profiting by destroying our nation’s young girl’s self worth by making rude comments about dark skin.

Now prove your ‘intentions’ by having a dark skinned girl on your packaging.

— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) July 2, 2020

Indian fashion vigilante, Diet Sabya posted a major throwback advertisement ft Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Mahima Chaudhary and called out the brand for promoting skin-lightening activities.