Cultural Norms, Fair And Lovely, And Advertising

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," "proven to deliver one to three shades of change." While

tanning is the rage in Western countries, skin lightening treatments

are popular in Asia.

According to industry sources, the top-selling skin lightening

cream in India is Fair

& Lovely

from Hindustan Lever

Ltd.

(HLL),

followed

by

CavinKare's

Fairever

brand. HLL's

Fair

&

Lovely

brand dominated the market

with a 90 percent share until

CavinKare

Ltd. (CKL) launched Fairever.

In just two

years,

the

Fairever

brand gained an impressive

15 percent market

share.

HLL's

share of market

for the Fair

& Lovely

line generates about

$60

million annually.

The

product sells for about 23 rupees

($0.29)

for

a 25-gram

tube of cream.

The rapid growth of CavinKare's Fairever (

www.cavinkare

.com

) brand prompted HLL to increase its advertising effort and to

launch a series of ads depicting a "fairer girl gets the boy theme."

One advertisement featured a fi nancially strapped father lamenting

his fate, saying, "If only I had a son," while his dark-skinned daughter

looks on, helpless and demoralized because she can't

bear the fi

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 successful fl

ight

attendant and can take

her father

to

dine

at a fi

ve-star

hotel. She's

happy

and so is her father.

In another ad, two attractive 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 friend's

advice--Use

a bar of soap to wash

away

the dark skin that's

keeping

men from fl

ocking

to her.

HLL's series of ads provoked CavinKare Ltd. to counter with an

ad that takes a dig at HLL's Fair & Lovely ad. CavinKare's ad has

a father-daughter duo as the protagonists, with the father shown

in newspapers or on the Web that are used by families to arrange

suitable alliances, and you will see that most potential grooms and

their families are looking for "fair" brides; some even are progressive

enough to invite

responses from women

belonging to a

different

caste.