The company, while vocal about its ‘purpose-led’ growth mission, has so far been quiet on this front. Unilever’s Fair & Lovely is the largest selling skin cream in India. The brand was also extended to soaps last year.
Mumbai: As Johnson & Johnson (J&J) exits the fairness space globally, leading beauty players like Unilever and L’Oreal are facing criticism over their presence in skin lightening products. J&J’s exit from the fairness category comes as part of the global movement against racism gathering steam following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in Minnesota (US).
When Unilever shared on social media its responsibility towards racial justice, it faced a barrage of comments from netizens over its fairness products. The company, while vocal about its ‘purpose-led’ growth mission, has so far been quiet on this front. Unilever’s Fair & Lovely is the largest selling skin cream in India. The brand was also extended to soaps last year.
The category may be insignificant for J&J in India in terms of revenues, but for Unilever’s Indian subsidiary Hindustan Unilever (HUL), the stakes are quite high. Fair & Lovely is an over Rs 2,000-crore brand by revenue and is part of HUL’s beauty & personal care category, which clocks Rs 17,000 crore annually. Edelweiss Securities research analyst Abneesh Roy said, “HUL dominates fairness creams in India and it is also a high-margin business. In the past, HUL has maintained that they are fulfilling a consumer demand and not propelling any skin stereotype. In the short term, HUL would gain market share as J&J exits fairness creams in India.”
Harish Bijoor, brand-strategy specialist & founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, said, “J&J has let the cat among the pigeons with this decision. When a global player — albeit with very small shares and stakes in the segment — takes a call, the entire category sits up as do consumers.”
Queries sent to HUL & L’Oreal India remained unanswered.For most consumers in India, a fairness product is said to be the first point of entry into the world of beauty. Over the years, as the debate grew louder on how fairness products could be promoting discrimination based on skin colour, marketers have adopted a new nomenclature and changed the semantics of fairness. Most products talk about “glowing”, “flawless”, “brightness” in their communication to consumers.The word “fair” exists only in the brand name. This, said industry experts, was a conscious effort on the part of marketers. Last year, Fair & Lovely combined the new facial glow trends to launch a “High Definition (HD) Glow” product line.In past interviews to TOI, Unilever’s leaders have maintained that Fair & Lovely is “a safe skincare product, which is not the case for many alternatives used by consumers… and that the product boosts the confidence of women”.
Bijoor said he does not believe any product can promote racism. “Racism is in the eye of the beholder. An innocent looking Fair & Lovely that sits on retail shelves is hardly the promoter of racist sentiment in anyone. The link is rather tenuous and lives more in the imagination of those who want to search it out in the product,” said Bijoor.
In its latest annual report, HUL said it continued to strengthen the core brands, one of which is Fair & Lovely, by driving penetration. The company further said, “In skin care, Fair & Lovely continues to deliver healthy growth.”
A J&J spokesperson said, “Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names or claims on our dark spot reducer products represent fairness or white as better than your own unique skin tone. This was never our intention — healthy skin is beautiful skin. We’ve made the business decision to no longer sell the Neutrogena Fine Fairness and Clean & Clear Clear Fairness product line.”
J&J’s website and retailer pages are being updated to remove links to purchase. “For a short while products may still appear on a limited number of in-store shelves as stock runs through. We will no longer produce or ship the product line,“ said the spokesperson.
When Unilever shared on social media its responsibility towards racial justice, it faced a barrage of comments from netizens over its fairness products. The company, while vocal about its ‘purpose-led’ growth mission, has so far been quiet on this front. Unilever’s Fair & Lovely is the largest selling skin cream in India. The brand was also extended to soaps last year.
The category may be insignificant for J&J in India in terms of revenues, but for Unilever’s Indian subsidiary Hindustan Unilever (HUL), the stakes are quite high. Fair & Lovely is an over Rs 2,000-crore brand by revenue and is part of HUL’s beauty & personal care category, which clocks Rs 17,000 crore annually. Edelweiss Securities research analyst Abneesh Roy said, “HUL dominates fairness creams in India and it is also a high-margin business. In the past, HUL has maintained that they are fulfilling a consumer demand and not propelling any skin stereotype. In the short term, HUL would gain market share as J&J exits fairness creams in India.”
Harish Bijoor, brand-strategy specialist & founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, said, “J&J has let the cat among the pigeons with this decision. When a global player — albeit with very small shares and stakes in the segment — takes a call, the entire category sits up as do consumers.”
Queries sent to HUL & L’Oreal India remained unanswered.For most consumers in India, a fairness product is said to be the first point of entry into the world of beauty. Over the years, as the debate grew louder on how fairness products could be promoting discrimination based on skin colour, marketers have adopted a new nomenclature and changed the semantics of fairness. Most products talk about “glowing”, “flawless”, “brightness” in their communication to consumers.The word “fair” exists only in the brand name. This, said industry experts, was a conscious effort on the part of marketers. Last year, Fair & Lovely combined the new facial glow trends to launch a “High Definition (HD) Glow” product line.In past interviews to TOI, Unilever’s leaders have maintained that Fair & Lovely is “a safe skincare product, which is not the case for many alternatives used by consumers… and that the product boosts the confidence of women”.
Bijoor said he does not believe any product can promote racism. “Racism is in the eye of the beholder. An innocent looking Fair & Lovely that sits on retail shelves is hardly the promoter of racist sentiment in anyone. The link is rather tenuous and lives more in the imagination of those who want to search it out in the product,” said Bijoor.
In its latest annual report, HUL said it continued to strengthen the core brands, one of which is Fair & Lovely, by driving penetration. The company further said, “In skin care, Fair & Lovely continues to deliver healthy growth.”
A J&J spokesperson said, “Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names or claims on our dark spot reducer products represent fairness or white as better than your own unique skin tone. This was never our intention — healthy skin is beautiful skin. We’ve made the business decision to no longer sell the Neutrogena Fine Fairness and Clean & Clear Clear Fairness product line.”
J&J’s website and retailer pages are being updated to remove links to purchase. “For a short while products may still appear on a limited number of in-store shelves as stock runs through. We will no longer produce or ship the product line,“ said the spokesperson.
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