Today, Jezebel posted a saddening piece about beauty in India. According to The Independent, Pond’s (owned by Unilever) is airing a commercial that promotes their product, White Beauty, a skin lightening cream. In the commercial, a dark-skinned Indian woman gets passed over by her boyfriend for a lighter-skinned woman. Guessing that her skin color is the problem, she turns to White Beauty. This commercial says, not so subtly, that light skin women are preferred and dark skinned women will not find love. This commercial is a sad statement on beauty and the after-effects of racism. Across the globe, women, and not just those in America, feel as though caramel or darker skin isn’t beautiful - the lighter the better. This is both scary and sad.
Interesting to note is that Unilever also owns Dove which has the whole campaign about “Love your Body.” Hmm.. anything to make a buck. Love yourself or hate yourself, just as long as they make money. Makes you think.
The commercial is below.
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CARAMEL BELLA: This is my place to write about my adventures and mis-adventures in this thing called life. I discuss my passions: the environment, politics, art & culture, writing as well as yoga, health and spirituality. The one thing you can expect from this blog is that it is not what you expected. Thanks for reading! To reach me email thecaramelbella at gmail.
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how timely this piece is!
tyra was just on the today show talking about a show she has about african-american mothers who put bleaching cream on the children’s skin. the show airs today.
i’ve got to see this…i am sitting her in disbelief.
By princessmarkii on 09.10.08 5:13 pm | Permalink
You said it perfectly: “Love yourself or hate yourself, just as long as they make money.” That’s the business of advertising, I don’t like it but it’s the way it is.
By Rox on 04.04.09 12:29 pm | Permalink
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