Unilever to rename Fair & Lovely skin-lightening cream in India

Unilever to rename Fair & Lovely skin-lightening cream in India

Unilever to rename Fair & Lovely skin-lightening cream in India | World news

Company agrees to change branding to promote 'more inclusive vision of beauty'

Unilever says: 'We recognise the use of the words "fair“, "white“ and "light“ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we do not think is right.'

Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters

The Indian arm of the consumer goods group Unilever says it will change the name of its skin-lightening cosmetics range Fair & Lovely and stop using terms such as "whitening“ in its marketing, but will continue selling the popular product.

Hindustan Unilever announced the change on Thursday in response to years of calls to drop the branding or stop selling the creams, adverts for which have featured Bollywood celebrities and in the past promoted their ability to dramatically whiten complexions.

The company said the "evolution of its skincare portfolio to a more inclusive vision of beauty“ would include removing the words fair/fairness, white/whitening and light/lightening from packaging and marketing and changing the brand name from Fair & Lovely over the next months.

"We recognise that the use of the words 'fair', 'white' and 'light' suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we do not think is right, and we want to address