How Should Advertisers Address the Desire for Whiter Skin Among Consumers?

 The Indian cosmetics industry has successfully produced a wide range of skin-lightening products in response to the belief that fair skin is more desirable than black complexion.

Are marketers going too far, though, when these corporations use advertisements for their creams to suggest that those with lighter skin tones are somehow better than those with darker skin tones?

Cream producers claim they are only catering to consumer demand, but social activists contend that these businesses have an ethical duty to refrain from using goods in a way that can encourage prejudice based solely on skin tone.

What is the responsibility of an organization?

The March 2016 case "Fair & Lovely vs. Dark Is Beautiful," authored by Harvard Business School researcher Saloni Chaturvedi and Rohit Deshpandé, Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, centers around the conflict surrounding the promotion of India's fairness creams.

"I was interested in looking at how they have been marketed because these products have really grown in the last 15 to 20 years," adds Deshpandé, who claims that the case sparked a lively discussion among business leaders in his Executive Education course. If you see advertising's function as supplying psychologically motivated primes as a tool for persuasion, you might use something that already exists in 

Critics of advertisements
Lighter-skinned women have been given preference in Indian advertisements, as Deshpandé and Chaturvedi explain in their case. In the 1980s, advertisements featured tales of dark-skinned women who were unsuccessful in finding husbands until they used fairness creams. Later, skin-lightening product Fair & Lovely made the connection between success and lighter skin, showcasing a young woman in a TV ad who was able to land a position as a sports presenter alone after using the product. Moreover, a number of well-known performers have promoted skin-whitening creams.


The example indicates that although men too want to fair skin and occasionally utilize goods made for males or apply creams targeted for them, bias appears to affect women more deeply since women's value is more frequently determined by how they look. (This

In order to address the issue, the founders of Women of Worth (WOW), a nonprofit group founded in 2008 to support women's empowerment, decided to start the "Dark Is Beautiful" campaign. This was done in part to put pressure on advertisers to cease depicting persons with lighter skin tones as superior.

"The answer is no if you look at whether anything has been done to affect the product category's sales."

 
Nandita Das, an actor and director, took on the role as its unofficial brand ambassador by opposing skin color discrimination, sometimes known as "colorism," and by refusing to have her skin tone altered or lightened for her film parts. The campaign's goal was to draw notice, and it succeeded in doing so. a photo of Das with the words, "Remain unjust. In 2013 the phrase "Stay beautiful" got viral on social media. (See the example below.)

Part of the Indian mindset is fair skin
Sales of fairness creams have continued to be strong in spite of strong opposition. In India, the facial care business was worth $1 billion in 2015. Skin lightening products accounted for about half of this market. By 2019, the size of the facial care market is predicted to have nearly doubled to $1.96 billion.


According to Deshpandé, "the campaign has really helped in raising public awareness." However, the answer is no if you consider if it has had any impact on the product category's sales. By all measures, this market is enormous and expanding rapidly.

Ultimately, the nation's predilection for pale complexion has ancient origins—perhaps stemming from the lighter-skinned Aryans who invaded India from the north, subduing the darker-skinned indigenous Dravidians.

The first fairness cream, Afghan Snow, hit the Indian market in 1919, although home remedies had been passed down even earlier from generation to generation. In 1975, Fair & Lovely was launched by Hindustan Unilever, the Indian subsidiary of the multinational company Unilever—and sales skyrocketed, leading other companies to quickly follow with their own products.

Skincare products are regulated under India’s Drugs & Cosmetics Act of 1945, although most creams and lotions are defined as cosmetics rather than drugs, which means companies don’t have to provide strict data about whether fairness creams actually work. Many of the lotions inhibit melanin production, but some dermatologists say that when the cream wears off, melanin production returns to typical levels.

Guidelines for advertising are only "suggestions."
In response to the controversy, the self-regulatory Advertising Standards Council of India released guidelines in 2014 regarding the promotion of skin-whitening products. The standards stated that advertisements for the product should not depict individuals with dark skin tones as “unattractive, unhappy, depressed, or concerned.” However, these criteria are not rules; they are only guidelines. Deshpandé claims, "These are not really regulations." "Those are recommendations."


The organizers of WOW are therefore concerned that cream producers may exploit dubious marketing strategies to capitalize on consumers' complex feelings about their complexion. Since these advertisements feature well-known performers with pale skin, the push for lighter skin tones can have powerful impacts. Deshpandé asserts, "Bollywood is a very powerful industry." "Most of these actors use these creams, and they are role models."

Kavitha Emmanuel, the creator of WOW, is especially worried about how the advertisements can influence the opinions of younger customers. In the case, she asserts that "the advertising industry has to stand up for what is right." "Several messages are already being inundated into the minds of our young people, causing them to doubt themselves."

Fairness creams are needed in our society, and we are providing for that need.

 
Emmanuel presented a 30,000-signature petition to Emami's Fair & Handsome in January 2014, requesting the company to remove an advertisement showing Shahrukh Khan throwing a cream to an aspiring actor who want to be like him. The business declined, stating, "We are satisfying a need in our society by providing fairness creams."

 The perspective from the business

Many of the 150 business professionals in Deshpandé's Leadership and Corporate Accountability course supported the stance of the cosmetic company. They contend that since the items are obviously satisfying a legitimate customer need and are not in violation of the law, the government has no right to interfere with them.


Deshpandé describes the debate among the executives, who had come from at least 20 different countries and had worked an average of 12 to 15 years in a range of industries, as "a powerful argument that played out strongly." "Consumers express their desire for this goods by voting with their wallets. The customer feels gorgeous as a result. Who is to control or limit consumer demand—the government or an activist group? Allow the market to express itself. 

However, Deshpandé notes that for some students in the course, it was important to see how cosmetic companies were genuinely boosting demand.

"If you psychologically manipulate consumers by making them feel self-conscious about their bodies and skin tone, is it appropriate and ethical? they questioned. What obligations does an organization have to its customers?


The conversation strayed from India and touched on various perspectives on skin tone worldwide. While many European and American women enjoy a dark tan, some Vietnamese women shield their skin from the sun by donning long gloves and hats to seem fairer.

According to Deshpandé, "this is a problem that arises in many different societies." "Even though the source of this case study is India, the problems it