Products that use the term “normal” may make someone else feel, but she added that using them can be dangerous to a person’s self-esteem and mental health.
Unilever’s decision “just scratches the surface” on what needs to be done more widely, said me. Jewel said. She suggested that beauty companies should also focus their attention on recruiting more diverse candidates for seats in the boardroom and for positions in cosmetic laboratories.
During the summer, in response to the international outrage over the murder of George Floyd, institutional racism and police violence, Unilever was one of several beauty businesses in the household that rushed to declare its opposition to racism. In June, Johnson & Johnson said they would stop selling skin-whitening lotions, including Neutrogena Fine Fairness and Clear Fairness by Clean & Clear. In the same month, L’Oreal also said it would no longer use words like “whitening” on its products.
At the time, Unilever, formed in 1930 by the merger of Union, a Dutch margarine manufacturer, and Lever Brothers, a British soap company, said it used the words ‘fair / fair, white / white and light / lightning’ from the product will remove. packaging and communication. The company has also committed to changing the name of its Fair & Lovely brand, a juggernaut in India, which has marketed decades of lighter skin as a path to happiness.
Unilever’s removal of ‘normal’ was a small step towards more inclusive perceptions of beauty, said Nina Davuluri, the first Native American to win the Miss America pageant and an advocate against colorism. a lighter skin favors over those with dark skin. , especially within a racial or ethnic group.
“I grew up with a lot of curly, textured hair,” she said. Davuluri said. “And all I saw that was considered normal in the ads and products was beautiful, straight, silky hair, mostly on white models, and that’s exactly what I thought was normal.”
But she said that without efforts to change visual advertising and marketing campaigns, such as showcasing different models, the efforts are booming.