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    It’s not only fair that’s lovely: HUL to rename skincare label

    Synopsis

    HUL will rebrand its flagship skincare brand Fair & Lovely and will stop using ‘Fair’ in the product.

    Fairness---AgenciesAgencies
    Representative Image
    MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is dropping the word ‘Fair’ from its iconic skin-care brand Fair & Lovely, the country’s top consumer goods firm said, amid global outrage and anti-racism protests triggered by the police killing of an African-American in the US last month. Rival Emami, too, will “most likely” rebrand its Fair & Handsome cream, said an executive.

    HUL’s Fair and Lovely, which has an annual revenue of over 3,000 crore, is sold in more than a dozen markets, primarily in Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Pakistan, but India remains its biggest market.

    Chairman Sanjiv Mehta told ET that the name change had been in the works since last year and that the company had applied for a new trademark a few months ago. According to an information on the website of India’s Trade Marks Registry, HUL had applied for a new brand, ‘Glow & Lovely’, on June 17, 2020.
    Fair-Now

    The timing of the rebranding was “purely coincidental”, Mehta said, when asked why did HUL react to an incident in distant US to make this change and not when the civil society in India expressed outrage over the positioning of the brand.

    He said the company had moved the brand’s positioning from fairness to glow, radiance and healthy skin last year itself, when it removed the cameo with two faces as well as the shade guides from its packaging. “We always believe in social justice as an organisation. But this is something which we have been planning and we have done a huge amount of research on. These are not changes that you do immediately,” Mehta told ET.

    “Trademark protection is an important aspect for any brand and in this case, we had applied for several trademarks in 2018. Some of them have received registration, while some applications are pending. We may choose to register other brand names too. We want to manage the unveiling of the new brand name carefully because we want to make sure that the market isn’t filled with counterfeit products that are unsafe. We will not be able to confirm what the new name will be,” HUL spokesperson said.

    Several companies, both in India and abroad, have been criticised for expressing solidarity with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement but at the same time promoting products with their skin-lightening benefits. Last week, Johnson & Johnson, which sells Neutrogena Fine Fairness and Clear Fairness creams, said it would no longer sell a few products that are advertised as dark-spot reducers.

    “Foryears, some brands have depicted dusky complexion as uncool. It’s about time that changes,” said Bling Entertainment MD Atul Kasbekar, who also tweeted that Fair & Lovely had done some of the most grotesquely racist and bigoted TV commercials in its long advertising history.


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    ( Originally published on Jun 25, 2020 )
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