Is It Fair?

The fairness crèmes' ads currently being featured on the television are RIDICULOUS, OUTRAGEOUS, and ATROCIOUS!

What are the companies and the advertising agencies that bag the contracts of advertising such products trying to portray?

Do they by any chance mean that the girls can be successful only if they are fair and that all dark girls should either buy their "get fair in 4 weeks" formula or they would perish from the face of the Indian soil? Even if they want to harp about "fairness brings good spouse, good job... and ultimately success!" then I would like to bring to their kind notice that one of the most developed nations of the world, the USA has no colour concept. Yes they do use tan crèmes as their skin is freckled and they just want to hide all the freckles in a uniform tan all over the face. So apparently all these dark girls who find it "impossible to fulfil their dreams" in India can go west and they will be total hits.

I am not preaching either. I just want to say... wake up to the reality!

This country has enough issues to take care of. And just when we had begun to move on and leave behind the taboos attached to the caste system, gender, colour, race and economic position, these ads surfaced and fed the same old concepts into the young minds over and over.

More so now, in the current era of individualism, fairness crèmes should not position themselves as a product for people who lack something. The ads should not leverage on negative aspects. Rather, they should just be a means to making an informed choice and should refrain from using the platforms of "girl child vs. boy child", "Dark and unsuccessful vs. Fair and successful" and so on.

The current positioning platform used by the ads has a negative connotation. It is usually handed over to a girl by another friend who sees the deplorable condition the former is in. Thus, the latter is shown showering sympathy on a helpless creature who has been abandoned by family members or a lover. This in fact makes it a product, which is supposed to be used under wraps.

Think about it. If the ad shows a girl using fairness crème to overcome an inferiority complex implanted in her as a result of being a neglected daughter, jilted lover or a loser in the corporate world, no one would accept being a user of such a product publicly. Potential users of such a product would hesitate to go to a shop and speak out in a loud and clear voice, "I want a fairness crème".

Also a lot of women who actually use fairness crèmes like to pretend that they use it like any other cold crème or an oil based moisturiser for their skin. No one wants to claim that they actually use it for making their skin lighter.

Consider another product, which boasts of a similar effect on the skin though it is much faster and lasts temporarily: face-bleaching crèmes. Notice that such products are also used by women all over the country and that too without any hesitation, even though the effects are more striking than that of a fairness crèmes. The major players in this field are Fem, Jolen, etc. These crèmes were advertised only to publicise their effects and there were no negative emotional strings attached. Remember the "gori gori-fem fem se" ad for Fem bleaching crème ad. It had a positive lasting effect on the audiences, as the message of "become fair in 15 minutes" was crystal clear. And the girl was not shown using the product because she had been rejected but she was shown using the product to look more beautiful for an already existing date.

Even the fairness crèmes can adopt the strategy of positioning their product as an enhancer of beauty rather than a necessity to survive. This will make the product more respectable and it won't be shameful to use a fairness crème. And if a girl uses a fairness crème she won't have to wonder what her friends might be thinking; that whether her boyfriend has just ditched her, or her parents have stopped loving her just because she can't make it in the big world for being a dark person, etc.

Some specific points need to be noticed here such as the following myth spread by one of the ads:

If you are born a daughter, you are a burden on your folks if you are not a fair skinned creature, as being dark will not fetch you any job, and so you won't be in a position to lend financial support to your family. You will hear your father murmuring to himself stuff like "kaash mera ladka hota" (wish I had a son). This leaves you in utter state of confusion and depression and suddenly you find refuge in a crème, which promises a wonderful career ahead. This will transform your whole life. You will be seen in a new light by everyone at home as well as at work. People will go gaga about your skin and your fair complexion even if the job profile has got nothing to do with your colour. Your career will be directly proportional to the speed at which your skin hues turn lighter.

Reality: No father will say such a discomforting thing to a daughter if he really loves her. Parents are always there to help you out in any situation no matter what. And if a father does harbour such thoughts then he is not worthy enough for you to spend money on buying a crème which promises you the Cinderella looks overnight, and then look for a job and then take your dad out for coffee, the bill for which is paid for, from you hard earned money.

As far as getting a job on the basis of your colour, we all are aware of the current scenario in India. The current economic trends in the corporate world favour only domain expertise, professionalism, will to work hard, healthy competition, good communication skills and integrity. If you possess all the aforementioned qualities but your skin is of a darker hue, in all possibility you will get your dream job (if there is a vacancy and you have applied for the same). Now, if you are only fair, then you will be accepted for the job opening only if the person who is interviewing you belongs to the lineage of someone like HITLER who believes that all dark souls should vanish from the face of the earth and also that all the fair people are intelligent, honest, ethical, and hard working. What are the odds in the favour of such a thing happening?

Another myth spread by the fairness crèmes' ads is that only fair girls get a hold on the eligible bachelors. Once you get lighter (in colour), the guy who has despised you till date will fall for you and propose to you. And then the two will live 'fairly' ever after.

Forget it! I think it takes much more than a colour change to start and sustain a good relationship.

The Indian woman has every right to look pretty in her own way. For some good looks might be dusky skin with long tresses like Bipasha Basu's. For others it might be short hair with fair-glow like Yana's. For some it might mean hazy eyes set on a dark round face like Rani's. I am by no means implying that these women are the ultimate epitomes of beauty; rather I am just citing some examples, as most of you might be aware of these names.

A lot of us go to the beauty parlours and get ourselves treated in a variety of ways. So what is wrong in a fairness crème being advertised? I never said they should not be advertised. My only concern is that they should not take support of meaningless emotional notions.

Rather than going into the "whys" of using a fairness crèmes, the ads should concentrate on "whats" of it.

By "why" I mean, the reason people/girls/ladies will use fairness crème. This should be left to the imagination of the viewer if you cannot think of wise ways of putting it across. Like some of the innocuous ways of advertising a fairness crème can be picked up from a situation I just described; women in a beauty parlour... a beauty parlour owner suddenly coming across a product which will make her a hit among her clients for finding a solution to dark skin. Now each of her clients might have her own reasons for buying the crème. Sell the crème for "what" it does, functionally, not how it will change someone's life because it cannot after all.

Another interesting consumer insight is that males are frequenting the beauty salons more reliouglsy than their female counterparts. There is a huge potential lying untapped their side of the market.

Taking all the above facts in consideration, I have come up with some alternative positioning platforms for a fairness crème: -

A beauty secret between two female friends or male friends

A secret being passed on from a mother to her daughter

A happy product for those happy moments like marriage, parties, anniversaries, etc.

A possession to be felt proud about and not a product to be gifted to someone inferior on whom you want to shower sympathy

It is high time we stop ridiculing dark colour! If a person does want to get rid of it, though, he should be made comfortable using a fairness crème.

Shana Sood (Kumar)

Resident of India

Economics Honours, MBA in Marketing

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