I know, I know. We’ve all had enough of the fairness cream discourse, nothing new about there.
But you know what we haven’t had enough of? A “glow” cream discourse (ok sorry bad joke).
Anyway, this blogpost is about Fair & Lovely’s rather unlovely rebrand into “Glow & Lovely” and the promotional video for this campaign.
It’s clear right from the start that they’re actively trying to construct an ‘empowerment narrative’ to address the backlash that they may have faced. This is evident from the video description on Youtube, as well as the content of the video itself, which I will get into in a few seconds.
Now lets break the song down one by one.
Starting with The Name:
“Mitti Ke Sau Rung."
Sounds progressive enough. Seems like they’re finally willing to acknowledge that there are other skin tones and complexions than your standard gora.
A step in the right direction? Maybe.
The Video:
Full of seemingly “empowered” women in professions ranging from football to dhol to motorbiking- all traditionally male dominated.
Bringing these women to the forefront? Also a step in the right direction.
The Lyrics:
Kinda your average corny motivational fight song “mushkilen aati rahein tumnay larr jaana hai” etc. etc. but chalo, we can give them points for trying.
The Problem:
By now you're probably wondering: gaana acha, video achi, intention achi, phir masla kya hai?
Masla ye hai that in their attempt to highlight female empowerment, “Glow” and Lovely is forgetting all that it actually stands for.
And here’s the most obvious example:
Despite the title of the song, 4/6 women in the video are fair-skinned. Shocking!
In a capitalistic world, there’s only so far a rebranding can go in terms of covering up your core beliefs and practices. At the end of the day, their product remains the same, regardless of whether or not they use buzzwords like diversity and equality to promote it.
While the video and lyrics are good as stand-alone media products, they seem to be very inconsistent with the brand itself, which also ends up undermining the message they’re trying to put out.
To me, this entire commercial reads something like ‘yes you can choose any sort of profession you want, but only if you’re fair enough for society’s liking’.
We will empower you, but not before putting you down for something else first.
What are your thoughts on this ad and the notion of empowerment its trying to promote? Is there anything you would have done differently or do you think this is good as it stands? Would love to discuss more in the comments!
Thank you for raising this issue, we as a colonised nation have become so whitewashed that it seems impossible to consider anything other than fair skin to be pretty. Such ads also keep reinforcing those beauty standards, Stuart Hall's reading talked about making associations with certain colors and since whiteness has always been linked to the "better", the "top," the ad seems to associate fair skin with achievements and being at the top. No matter how harmful the ingredients might be, they would try to sell the product in the name of empowerment. When they show fair skinned models mostly, it then hinders representation and promotes harmful ideas of only fair skin as being "glow-y" and "lovely."
Love the satire in the blog. Absolutely nailed it. One thing that I have always found so ironic about this entire situation is how every whitening cream brand has changed their perspective to 'empowering women' as a face-saving technique. They've all somehow felt the need to show that they really care about women, their goals, and ambitions, but the real question is; if they really did care, why do they constantly feel the need to make us believe that our goals are tied to how we look externally? A similar case can also be seen in shampoo ads; how is my hair-fall connected to my job interview going well? (Yikes) Also, another really disturbing thing in these advertisements that I…
Fr, the way that people are obsessed with changing their skin tones and their bodies and stuff, is not giving women empowerment. Youre right, they'll empower what you want to do with your life but only if you fit their beauty standards. Think: not wearing makeup to work. If you're not fair and traditionally beautiful, put together, easy on the eyes, skinny, etc., your worth seems to drop. Like parents disregarding a medical degree because larki ki shaadi nahi hui. Wild.
This entire campaign feels like a desperate attempt to restore sales in the wake of an era when people are closely starting to examine notions of beauty and starting to question marketing campaigns that exploit people's insecurities and are based on years of racism and colourism. The fact of the matter is, Glow and Lovely is built on a legacy of seeing fair skin as better than other tones and a source of self-confidence and beauty. However, the product still contains harmful ingredients (which is why it is banned in Norway) and does NOT work because a topical cream cannot change your skin tone. In my opinion, the entire product needs to be scrapped because of how severely outdated it…
Completely agree with your analysis, and such a fun read this was! I loved the formatting and bad puns! While on the surface, the ad does seem to finally be catching up with how problematic our beauty standards are. But with the product eventually remaining the same, their underlying intentions seem to be capitalistic in nature. The ad seems like nothing more than a desperate attempt to stay on top of sales and relevant when the discourse on inclusivity and diversity is more prevalent than ever. the rebranding and surface level acceptance of different skin tones isn't enough, though. While the ad may have served as a great means of exposure for these talented women, their presence in the ad…