What lies ahead for fairness hard sell

“But what will ads for fairness products do without insecurity being part of the script? Why will people buy them if they are confident in their own skin?” wonders Tara Nagpal (name changed) who has struggled with a skin colour complex throughout her life.

“If fairness is not an ideal, who will want to achieve it?”

Nagpal is responding to guidelines issued last week by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).

According to it, advertising should not directly or implicitly show people with darker skin as unattractive, unhappy, of inferior social status, unsuccessful or disadvantaged in some way, particularly in relation to being attractive to the opposite sex, matrimony, job placement, promotions and other prospects.

A look at ads for fairness products, a ₹3,000-crore market, reveals that many marketers have wised up to this already.

Growing outrage and awareness over such depiction in the advertising has ensured that most major skin care firms have found other ways to get their message across in relatively more politically correct ways.

These days, fairness products’ advertising is largely on one or the other of these platforms: The product’s efficacy/improved technology; age control, sun control, grime control, spots’ control; healthy glow; specially tailored to men’s skin. It’s almost as if it’s surrogate advertising.

Of course, making a good impression is the prime appeal.

However, there’s no denying that in these ads, the protagonist is initially shown as dull, both in complexion and mood, and lights up – or rather, lightens up, after the use of fairness cream. And some ads continue to use the attraction/marriage/job themes anyway.

So as Nagpal wonders, where does fairness products’ advertising go from here? Companies, of course, make the right noises. “All our communication focuses on the efficacy of the product and is most importantly, backed by scientific fact. Our conviction is that there is no single model for beauty, the appearance and physical features of each person are unique,” says a L’Oreal statement released after ASCI’s announcement.

Mohan Goenka, Director, Emami, which makes the Fair and Handsome brand of fairness cream for men, says: “The new guidelines … will help in creating socially responsible campaigns steering away from creating any negative emotions with respect to non-usage of fairness products. Though the objective of showing product efficacy remains the same, execution will be the key.”

Observers point to how the advertising perpetuates a single definition of beauty, invalidating and devaluing differences of any kind.

Anjana Raghavan, a researcher in gender and sexuality studies at IIT Madras, agrees the guidelines will result in a reduction of viciousness but “most certainly will not change the violence that this ‘beauty culture’ perpetrates against us all, will not change the discourse of beauty within advertising and society and make for an affirming and accepting culture.”

Two ad persons cat.a.lyst spoke to say that these guidelines are a trigger for a more progressive strain of advertising. Says Bobby Pawar, Director & Chief Creative Officer, Publicis South Asia: “Marketers may have to walk away from the problem-solution genre of advertising, where being dark is a socially bad thing and the solution for acceptance/success is XYZ fairness cream. There is no one catch-all strategy that will work for all brands. But if they try to promote a socially progressive point of view on the colour of the skin, it will benefit them and the society they serve.”

Rajesh Krishnamurthy, Business Head, Consumer Products Division, Himalaya Drug Company, says his firm is “safe” as it is fully compliant with the guidelines. “We are a problem-solution brand and our conversation stays on that core value” for Natural Glow Fairness Cream, he asserts. Shenaz Bapooji, Senior Vice-President and Head of Office, Soho Square, Bangalore, the agency behind Himalaya’s advertising, says it takes the story “completely away from fairness” to “glowing skin”.

Yet call them fairness creams they must. Bapooji acknowledges the mismatch between the appellation and the advertised benefit. “The country is so wired to this fairness phenomenon, it is an easy catchment. If you called it a ‘clarifying’ product, people will not relate or understand, but this attitude will go away with time,” she believes. No wonder that so many global skin care firms ride on the fairness platform with messianic zeal in India even though they do not make such products for their bigger, main markets.

Ashwitha Jayakumar, an independent publishing professional, says it’s too much to hope that this one directive will cause an immediate change. “Simply changing the narrative won’t make a difference, so long as fairness is still cast in an aspirational light, and so long as Bollywood pretends that all the Indians worth showing on the silver screen are of the same pale (or fetchingly tanned) hue. It’s going to take a long time, and a lot more positive images of dark-skinned people in the media before we can even begin to overcome such a deeply ingrained idea.”

Says Publicis’ Pawar: I believe brands have a responsibility to do good where they can, especially in this day and age where people buy into brands not just for what they offer but also what they stand for. If you share that belief then your course is clear.”