The Indian wing of global consumer giant Unilever on Thursday, June 25, announced that the company would be removing the words 'fairness', 'whitening' and 'lightening' from products, and changing the Fair and Lovely brand name.

fair and lovely
Hindustan Unilever to remove the word 'fair' from its skin-lightening cream 'Fair and Lovely'.Twitter

The decision to rebrand its skin-lightening cream 'Fair and Lovely' comes as the company was criticised for promoting negative stereotypes related to darker skin tones. A few days back, American multinational Johnson and Johnson said that it will be stopping the sale of two fairness products that are sold in India.

'Removing words 'fairness', 'whitening' & 'lightening' from items'

Taking to Twitter, Unilever wrote, "We're committed to a skin care portfolio that's inclusive of all skin tones, celebrating the diversity of beauty. That's why we're removing the words 'fairness', 'whitening' & 'lightening' from products, and changing the Fair & Lovely brand name."

The new name for the cream was awaiting regulatory approvals, says Hindustan Unilever after announcing that it would drop the word 'Fair' in the brand.

In a press release, the firm said, "We have been working on the evolution of our Fair & Lovely brand, which is sold across Asia, progressively moving to a more inclusive vision of beauty that celebrates skin glow. We have changed the advertising, communication and – more recently – the packaging in South Asia, and we think it's important that we now share the next step that we have been working on: changing the brand name. We will also continue to evolve our advertising, to feature women of different skin tones, representative of the variety of beauty across India and other countries. We want Fair & Lovely to become a brand that celebrates glowing and radiant skin, regardless of skin tone."

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