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.
