Unilever’s Response to the Fair and Lovely Blog Post
I had published a blog post about Fairness creams and its inherent racist implications, titled Unfair and Lowly - Fairness creams and racist tones. In response, Unilever has sent me the following response. Personally, their reply appears like a canned response and doesn’t answer my concerns.
Read on and judge for yourselves …
Dear Mr Nair,
At the onset let me apologise for the delay in replying to your mail… I had been travelling on some personal exigency and had hence been unable to get back to you earlier…
Fair & Lovely as a brand is about “look good, feel good and get the maximum out of life” which you would agree that is appreciated by all . We at Fair & Lovely have always attempted to keep in pace with changing times and aspirations of the Indian consumer while continuing while standing for the above maxim. For eg. We have found a significant number of men consumers using Fair & Lovely and to cater their need we have launched a product for men also from the FAL stable- Fair & Lovely Menz active and hence we are no longer a product for women alone.
You may be equally aware that Fair & Lovely stands for women empowerment. Towards this objective Fair & Lovely Foundation seeks to encourage empowerment of Indian women through multiple initiatives in the areas of education and career guidance. The biggest project is Fair & Lovely scholarships which for the last 4 years has been providing financial assistance for pursuit of higher education to deserving young women from economically weaker backgrounds. (This year, Fair & Lovely scholarships have been conferred to 196 deserving girls from all sections of the society)
Padamshree Mrs. Lila Poonawala is the adviser to the foundation and eminent personalities from the field of education, psychology and media contribute towards the goals of the foundation. In addition, the foundation also conducts career fairs nationwide to cater to the career and educational needs of girl students.
As such Fair & Lovely started as a brand for women and has always reflected the aspirations of its consumers, especially women in all its communications. With changes of time , the communications aim to reflect the changing aspirations of women which is nothing but a sense of empowerment which she gets from being independent. To achieve that feeling of independence as a result of economic empowerment, she sees education and career as being the most important requirement. For the last few years, our advertisements have focused on this self-actualization through achievements in their career.
In light of the above points, we would like to reiterate our commitment to empowering women and in no way undermine their strength. We would be very happy to engage with you to highlight various developments and initiatives on Fair & Lovely.
Regards,
Abhinav
Sr. Brand Manager
Fair & Lovely
Tags: Fairness Creams, Response, Univeler
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