Fair & Lovely

in newspapers or on the Web that are used by families to do suitable all(a)iances, and you will see that most potential coiffures and their families are looking for h starst brides some even are progressive e nary(prenominal)gh to invite responses from women be to a polar caste. These ads, hundreds of which appear in Indias daily newspapers, re? ect attempts to solicit individuals with the appropriate religion, caste, regional ancestry, professional and educational quali? cations, and, frequently, strip color. veritable(a) in the growing numbers of ads that announce caste no bar, the adjective fair regularly precedes professional quali? ations. In everyday conversation, the ultimate compliment on someones looks is to say someone is gora (fair). I have no problem with race inadequacying to be lighter, said a Delhi beauty living room owner, Saroj Nath. It doesnt make you racist, any more than trying to make yourself look youngisher makes you ageist. Bollywood (Indias Holly wood) glori? es conventions on beauty by always moulding a fair-skinned actress in the role of heroine, surrounded by the darkest extras. Women want to use whiteners because it is aspirational, like losing weight. Even the gods supposedly lament their dark complexion Krishna sings plaintively, Radha kyoon gori, main kyoon kala? (Why is Radha so fair when Im dark? ). A skin de? cient in melanin (the pigment that determines the skins brown color) is an ancient predilection. More than 3,500 years ago, Charaka, the illustrious sage, wrote about herbs that could help make the skin fair. Indian dermatologists maintain that luridness products crowd outnot truly work as they reach only the upper layers of the skin and so do not affect melanin production. Nevertheless, for some, upright & lovable is a miracle worker. A user gushes that The last time I went to my parents home, I got compliments on my fair skin from everyone. For others, there is only disappointment. One 26-year-old wo rking woman has been a regular user for the past eight years and to no avail. I should have turned into Snow White by now but my skin is still the same wheatish color. As an owner of a public transaction ? rm commented, My maid has been utilize Fair and attractive for years and I still cant see her in the dark . . .. But she goes on using it. Hope springs eternal, I suppose. The number of Indians who think lighter skin is more beautiful may be shrinking.Sumit Isralni, a 22-year-old hair designer in his finds salon, thinks things have changed in the last two years, at least in Indias most cosmopoli suntan cities, Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Women now prefer their own complexion, their ingrained way Isralni says he prefers a more Indian beauty himself I wont judge my wife on how fair her complexion is. Sunita Gupta, a beautician in the same salon, is more critical. Its just foolishness she exclaimed. The premise of the ads that women could not become airline attendants if they are dark-skinned was wrong, she said. Nowadays plenty like black beauty. It is a truism that women, especially in the tropics, desire to be a shade fairer, no matter what their skin color. Yet, unlike the advent used in India, advertisements elsewhere usually show how to use the product and how it works. Cultural Norms, Fair & Lovely, and Advertising CASE 2? 2 Fair & Lovely, a branded product of Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL), is touted as a cosmetic that lightens skin color. On its Web site (www. hll. com), the company calls its product the miracle worker, turn up to deliver one to three shades of change. objet dart tanning is the rage in Western countries, skin lightening treatments are popular in Asia. According to industry sources, the top-selling skin lightening skim over in India is Fair & Lovely from Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL), followed by CavinKares Fairever brand. HLLs Fair & Lovely brand dominated the market with a 90 percent share until CavinKare Ltd. (CKL) launche d Fairever. In just two years, the Fairever brand gained an impressive 15 percent market share. HLLs share of market for the Fair & Lovely line generates about $60 million annually. The product sells for about 23 rupees ($0. 9) for a 25-gram tube of cream. The rapid growth of CavinKares Fairever (www. cavinkare .com) brand prompted HLL to enlarge its advertising effort and to launch a series of ads depicting a fairer girl bum arounds the boy theme. One advertisement featured a ? nancially strapped father express feelings his fate, saying, If only I had a give-and-take, while his dark-skinned fille looks on, helpless and demoralized because she cant bear the ? nancial responsibility of her family. Fast-forward and plain Jane has been transformed into a gorgeous light-skinned woman through the use of a fairness cream, Fair & Lovely.Now clad in a miniskirt, the woman is a flourishing ? ight attendant and can take her father to dine at a ? ve-star hotel. Shes happy and so is he r father. In another ad, two good-natured young women are sitting in a bedroom one has a boyfriend and, consequently, is happy. The darkerskinned woman, lacking a boyfriend, is not happy. Her friends adviceUse a bar of soap to wash away the dark skin thats keeping men from ? ocking to her. HLLs series of ads provoked CavinKare Ltd. to counter with an ad that takes a dig at HLLs Fair & Lovely ad.CavinKares ad has a fatherdaughter duo as the protagonists, with the father shown encouraging the daughter to be an achiever irrespective of her complexion. CavinKare maintained that the objective of its new commercial is not to take a dig at Fair & Lovely but to reinforce Fairevers positioning. scratch color is a powerful theme in India, and much of Asia, where a lighter color represents a higher status. While Americans and Europeans ? ock to tanning salons, many crossways Asia seek ways to have fair complexions. Culturally, fair skin is associated with positive values that relate to cla ss and beauty.One Indian lady commented that when she was growing up, her mother forbade her to go outdoors. She was not trying to keep her daughter out of trouble but was trying to keep her skin from getting dark. Brahmins, the priestly caste at the top of the social hierarchy, are considered fair because they traditionally stayed inside, poring over books. The undercaste at the bottom of the ladder are regarded as the darkest hoi polloi because they customarily worked in the searing sun. Ancient Hindu scriptures and modern poetry eulogize women endowed with skin made of white marble.Skin color is closely identi? ed with caste and is laden with symbolism. Pursue any of the grooms and brides wanted ads cat2994X_case2_019-046. indd 25 cat2994X_case2_019-046. indd 25 8/27/10 205 PM 8/27/10 205 PM Part 6 Supplementary Material three-month Home Healthcare Nursing Assistant course catering to young women between the ages of 18 and 30 years. According to HLL, the Fair & Lovely Academy f or Home Care Nursing Assistants removeers a unique training opportunity for young women who possess no entry-level skills and therefore are not employable in the new economy job market.The Fair & Lovely Foundation plans to serve as a gas pedal for the economic empowerment for women across India. The Fair & Lovely Foundation will showcase the achievements of these women not only to honor them but also to set an good example for other women to follow. AIDWAs fight back against ads that convey the message, if she is not fair in color, she wont get married or wont get promoted, also has resulted in some adjustment to fairness cream ads. In revised versions of the fairness cream ads, the get fair to attract a groom theme is being reworked with enhance your selfcon? ence so that a potential groom himself begs for attention. It is an attempt at typifying the modern Indian woman, who has more than just marriage on her mind. Advertising focus is now on the message that lighter skin enabl es women to obtain jobs conventionally held by men. She is career-oriented, has high aspirations, and, at the same time, wants to look good. AIDWA concedes that the authentic crop of television ads for fairness creams are not as demeaning as ones in the past. However, it remains against the product as the president of AIDWA stated, It is downright racist to denigrate dark skin. Although AIWDAs press against fairness creams seems to have had a modest impact on changing the advertising message, it has not slowed the demand for fairness creams. Sales of Fair & Lovely, for example, have been growing 15 to 20 percent year over year, and the $318 million market for skin care has grown by 42. 7 percent in the last three years. Says Euromonitor International, a research ? rm Half of the skin care market in India is fairness creams and 60 to 65 percent of Indian women use these products daily. Recently, several Indian companies were extending their marketing of fairness creams beyond urba n and rural markets.CavinKares launch of Fairever, a fairness cream in a small sachet pack priced at Rs 5, aimed at rural markets where some 320 million Indians reside. Most marketers have found rural markets impossible to cross pro? tably due to low income levels and inadequate distribution systems, among other problems. However, HLL is approaching the market through Project Shakti, a rural initiative that targets small villages with populations of 2,000 people or less. It empowers underprivileged rural women by providing income-generating opportunities to sell small, lower priced packets of its brands in villages.Special packaging for the rural market was designed to provide single-use sachet packets at 50 paise for a sachet of shampoo to Rs 5 for a fairness cream (for a weeks usage). The aim is to have 100,000 Shakti Ammas, as they are called, spread across 500,000 villages in India by year end. CavinKare is growing at 25 percent in rural areas compared with 15 percent in urban centers. In plus to expanding market effort into rural markets, an unexpected market arose when a research study revealed Indian men were applying girlie fairness potions in drovesbut on the sly.It was estimated that 40 percent of boyfriends/husbands of girlfriends/wives were applying white magic solutions that came in little tubes. Indian companies spotted a business opportunity, and Fair & Handsome, Menz Active, Fair One Man, and a male discolourise called Saka were introduced to the male market. The sector expanded dramatically when Shah Rukh Khan, a highly acclaimed annotateing on the cultural bias toward fair skin, one critic states, There are attractive people who go through life feeling inferior to their fairer sisters.And all because of charming grandmothers and aunts who do not hesitate to make un? attering comparisons. Kalee Kalooti is an oft-heard comment about women who glide by to have darker skin. They get humiliated and morti? ed over the color of their skin, a fa ct over which they have no control. Are societal values responsible? Or advertising campaigns? Advertising moguls claim they only re? ect prevailing attitudes in India. This is possibly true but what about ethics in advertising? Is it correct to make advertisements that openly denigrate a majority of Indian peoplethe dark-skinned populace?The advertising is blatant in their strategy. handle anyone who is not the right color and shoot down their self-image. A dermatologist comments, law obtained with the help of creams is short-lived. The main reason being, most of these creams contain a true amount of bleaching agent, which whitens facial hair, and not the skin, which leads people to believe that the cream worked. Furthermore, In India the popularity of a product depends totally on the success of its advertising. HLL launched its television ad campaign to promote Fair & Lovely but withdrew it after four months amid severe criticism for its portrayal of women. Activists argued that one of the messages the company sends through its air hostess ads demonstrating the orientation for a son who would be able to take on the ? nancial responsibility for his parents is especially harmful in a country such as India where sex discrimination is rampant. Another offense is perpetuating a culture of discrimination in a society where fair is synonymous with beautiful. AIDWA (All India Womens Democratic Association) lodged a sickness at the time with HLL about their offensive ads, but Hindustan Lever failed to respond. The womens association then appealed to the National Human Rights Commission alleging that the ad demeaned women. AIDWA objected to three things (1) the ads were racist, (2) they were promoting son preference, and (3) they were insulting to working women. The way they represent the young woman who, after using Fair & Lovely, became attractive and therefore lands a job suggested that the main quali? ation for a woman to get a job is the way she looks. The Human Rights Commission passed AIDWAs complaints on to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which said the campaign violated the Cable and goggle box Network Act of 1995provisions in the act state that no advertisement shall be permitted which derides any race, caste, color, creed and nationality and that Women must not be portrayed in a manner that emphasized passive, submissive qualities and encourages them to play a subordinate secondary role in the family and society. The government issued notices of the complaints to HLL.After a year-long campaign led by the AIDWA, Hindustan Lever Limited discontinued two of its television advertisements for Fair & Lovely fairness cold cream. Shortly after pulling its ads off the air, HLL launched its Fair & Lovely Foundation, vowing to encourage economic empowerment of women across India by providing resources in education and business to millions of women who, though immensely talented and capable, need a guiding hand to help them take the leap forward, presumably into a fairer future. HLL sponsored career fairs in over 20 cities across the country offering focussing in as many as 110 careers.It supported 100 rural scholarships for women students passing their 10th grade, a professional course for aspiring beauticians, and a cat2994X_case2_019-046. indd 26 cat2994X_case2_019-046. indd 26 8/27/10 205 PM 8/27/10 205 PM Cases 2 The Cultural milieu of Global Marketing 2. Is it ethical to exploit cultural norms and values to promote a product? Discuss. 3. Is the advertising of Fair & Lovely demeaning to women, or is it promoting the fairness cream in a way not too dissimilar from how most cosmetics are promoted? 4. Will HLLs Fair & Lovely Foundation be enough to counter charges made by AIDWA?Discuss. 5. In light of AIDWAs charges, how would you suggest Fair & Lovely promote its product? Discuss. Would your response be different if Fairever continued to use fairness as a theme of its promotion? Discuss. 6. P ropose a promotion/marketing program that will counter all the arguments and charges against Fair & Lovely and be an effective program. 7. Now that a male market for fairness cream exists, is the strength of AIDWAs argument weakened? 8. Comment on using Shakti Ammas to introduce fairness cream for the masses in light of AIDWAs charges.Sources Nicole Leistikow, Indian Women Criticize Fair and Lovely Ideal, Womens eNews , April 28, 2003 Arundhati Parmar, Objections to Indian Ad Not Taken Lightly, Marketing News , June 9, 2003, p. 4 Fair & Lovely Launches Foundation to Promote Economic Empowerment of Women, press release, Fair & Lovely Foundation, http// www. hll. com (search for foundation), March 11, 2003 Rina Chandran, All for SelfControl, Business Line (The Hindu), April 24, 2003 Khozem Merchant and Edward Luce, Not So Fair and Lovely, Financial Times , March 19, 2003 Fair & Lovely Rede? es Fairness with Multivitamin Total Fairness Cream, press release, Hindustan Lever Ltd. , May 3 , 2005 Dr. Deepa Kanchankoti, Do You Think Fairness Creams Work? http//www. mid-day. com/metro, July 13, 2005 CavinKare Launches Small Sachet Packs, Business India , celestial latitude 7, 2006 Analysis of Skin Care Advertising on TV During JanuaryAugust 2006, Indiantelevision. com Media, Advertising, Marketing Watch, October 17, 2006 Women Power Gets Full Play in CavinKares Brand Strategy. The Economic Times (New Delhi, India), December 8, 2006 Heather Timmons, Telling Indias Modern Women They Have Power, Even Over Their Skin Tone, The New York Times , May 30, 2007 The Year We Almost Lost improbable (or Short or Medium-Height), Dark and Handsome, The Hindustan Times , December 29, 2007 Indias Hue and Cry Over Paler Skin, The Sunday Telegraph (London), July 1, 2007 Fair and Lovely? University Wire , June 4, 2007 The zip to Keep up with Modern India, Media, June 29, 2007 Aneel Karnani, Doing Well by Doing GoodCase Study Fair & Lovely Whitening Cream, Strategic Management Journal 2 8, no. 3 (2007), pp. 135157. Bollywood actor likened to an Indian Tom Cruise, decided to endorse Fair & Handsome. Euromonitor International forecasts that in the next ? ve years, spending on mens preparedness products will rise 24 percent to 14. 5 billion rupees, or US$320 million. A recent product review in www. mouthshut. com, p nominates Fair & Lovely fairness cream Fair & Lovely contains fairness vitamins which penetrate deep down our skin to give us radiant fairness. I dont know if it can change the skin color from dark to fair, but my personal experience is that it works very well, if you have a naturally fair color and want to preserve it without much headache. I think Riya Sen has the best skin right now in Bollywood. It appears to be really prosperous and tender. So, to have a soft and fair skin like her I recommend Fair & Lovely Fairness Lotion or Cream. Yet skin color isnt a proof of greatness. Those with wheatish or dark skin are by no way inferior to those who have fair skin. Here are a a few(prenominal) facts from Hindustan Lever Ltd. s homepage Lever Limited is Indias largest Packaged Mass Consumption Goods Company. We are leaders in Home and Personal Care Products and nutriment and Beverages including such products as Ponds and Pepsodent. We seek to meet everyday needs of people everywhereto anticipate the aspirations of our consumers and customers and to respond creatively and competitively with branded products and services which raise the quality of life. It is this purpose which inspires us to build brands. Over the past 70 years, we have introduced about 110 brands. Fair & Lovely has been specially designed and proven to eliver one to three shades of change in most people. Also its sunscreen system is specially optimized for Indian skin. Indian skin, unlike Caucasian skin, tends to tan rather than burn and, hence, requires a different combination of UVA and UVB sunscreens. You may want to visit HLLs homepage (www. hhl. com) for addi tional information about the company. QUESTIONS 1. Is it ethical to sell a product that is, at best, only mildly effective? Discuss. cat2994X_case2_019-046. indd 27 cat2994X_case2_019-046. indd 27 8/27/10 205 PM 8/27/10 205 PM