indianinsights

[indianinsights]

Fair but.. Not So Lovely

Post Timestamp : 12:33:43, Aug 13 2016.

Hi everyone!

How are you guys? I haven’t posted a lot recently since I was on vacation! I visited some family in America. It was a lot of fun, but it’s a story for another time ;) I get my grades for the finals I sat for earlier in only a week, so you could say I’m a little scared for that. :O

Anyways, I wanted to talk about something pretty serious we Indians tend to overlook a lot of times, which is colorism. I hadn’t watched a lot of TV during my finals and decided to catch up with them in the past week. I was watching New Girl while having lunch the other day and during a commercial break, saw something that really made me feel… upset. :( A Fair and Lovely Commercial. While it’s definitely not abnormal to see adverts for it in India, this ad in particular put me in a bad mood.

To summarise it, a few girls are upset about their darker skin tone (which can still be considered average or even lighter than the average skin tone of an Indian woman) and Fair and Lovely brand ambassador, actress Yami Gautam comes to the rescue with some face wash. It finishes with the slogan ‘Fairness like a salon facial’. You might’ve seen it too if you watch a lot of Star World or channels as such. (linked below if you haven’t :P)

It’s extremely chirpy and colourful, yet still dark due to its subject and message - fairness, and not the equal kind. It uses pastel shades of colours, probably so as to appear more feminine and appeal to all females above the age of 13. Additionally, the ad starts with duller shades of colours, which then transition to bright after the introduction of the face wash, probably also so as to emphasise to us the brightening effects of the face wash. The models featured are all quite conventionally beautiful and attract us to the product even more, making us think that by using the same face wash, we’d be just as pretty.

(0:12), Fair & Lovely (August 10, 2016).

There’s some soft pop music in the background, with lyrics based on the plot of the ad, and jumpy choreography, both of which do their best to entertain us while we watch and add to its ‘positive vibes’. The imagery and actions, such as the girls dancing around in a circle, excessively using hand gestures and their exaggerated facial expressions, are childlike and very ‘girly’, which can attract women who wish to appear more youthful. Even the slogan at the end, ‘Fairness like a salon facial’ can be considered effective, since it suggests that this one face wash could do the job of an expensive treatment.

Do you guys remember ever learning about the types of advertising strategies in your English class? This, and most other Fair & Lovely ads, can be considered an example of problem-solution advertising, in which a problem is created and a solution, usually the product to be sold, is suggested. In this ad, the issue is that the darkness and dullness of skin is unattractive, and that Fair & Lovely face wash will solve this problem.

I’m sure you’d also remember learning about techniques used in adverts. This ad uses celebrity endorsement, with Yami Gautam, a popular Indian model/actress who is known for her beauty. I’m sure having her in the ad does a good job of making girls want to purchase Fair & Lovely. I remember watching her in advertisements when I was younger and hearing about how my classmates adored her. Her ads really used to make me think that I would be as beautiful as she was if I used the products she endorsed.

While the commercial does manage to use some effective techniques, such as colour, jingle, slogan and celebrity endorsement, its cheery nature and overall positivity mask the issue that plagues our nation and so many others, the aspiration for fairness and colorism.

When I was younger, I would feel ashamed of my skin. Even as a child, I would avoid going out in the sun and all my peers and relatives whose skin tones were lighter than mine were constantly labelled the ‘pretty’ ones, and I’m sure we can hold ads and products which promote fairness, like this one, guilty. They show unrealistic expectations of beauty, with girls in advertisements being shown transforming from being dark-skinned to light-skinned in a matter of seconds.

(0:25), Fair & Lovely (August 10, 2016).

There are so many little girls who see these changes and think they have to do the same for themselves, and that everybody, is what hurts me the most. Can you imagine 5 year olds crying and feeling terrible about themselves just because they were born with more melanin in their skin? It’s truly painful, isn’t it? Well, that’s how many girls are brought up, even today. >:(

I believe that this has gone on for too long and that it’s up to us, the next generation of Indians, to fix this! We should promote other brands which encourage girls to love the skin they’re in! Brands like Fenty Beauty, which are inclusive to all skin tones and encourage girls to love themselves for who they are, should be promoted more than Fair & Lovely, or other brands which promote their fairness creams in India. That is the one of the few ways we can have a generation of women, as well as men, who truly love the colour of their skin and respect those with differing skin tones. <3

We should also actively speak against ads and companies which portray dark skin to be negative or inferior in any way to lighter skin, such as this one.

What are your thoughts on this ad? Have you seen it before? What actions do you think we can take against colourism? Leave a comment below with your thoughts on this.

Fair & Lovely (August 10, 2016). Fair & Lovely Clean Up Face Wash [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m25Ux88ynFU