Abhay Deol lauds HUL's step of rebranding 'Fair & Lovely', says 'we have a long way to go'

Abhay Deol is certainly an actor who has managed to carve a niche for himself, not just through his choice of films but also the unabashed social media updates which make netizens think. Amid his recent posts about his previous projects and the politics of their making, Deol has also lauded the efforts of citizens of the world in bringing about the cultural shift which has resulted in the landmark announcement by HUL on Thursday about rebranding their 'fairness' product 'Fair & Lovely'. Calling it a 'beautiful beginning', Abhay Deol celebrated the fact that it is 'a small step in the right direction'.

He wrote, "It took a world backlash and the #blacklivesmatter movement to give us a push in this direction. But make no mistake, all of you who have been vocal about the need for a cultural shift in regard to the sale and endorsement of fairness creams in our country contributed to this victory. We have a long way to go in breaking our conditioning of what constitutes for beauty, but this is a small step in the right direction. It’s the starting point to a long road ahead. What a beautiful beginning! #nomorefairandlovely #peoplepower" (sic).

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Hindustan Unilever, on Thursday, announced that it would be dropping the name of its long-standing 'Fair & Lovely' product in order to be more inclusive and would remove the words ‘fair/fairness’, ‘white/whitening’, and ‘light/lightning’ from its products’ packs and communication. The change in its name comes in the aftermath of the protests against racial discrimination that expressed outrage on the discrimination based on skin color. Unilever further revealed that it would come up with a new name for the product in the coming months in order to create a more inclusive version of the product. 

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Fair & Lovely has been marketed by Hindustan Unilever over the years as a gateway to skin lightening or whitening. Despite the company's claim that it ad changed its branding approach from 2014, the product was continued to be marketed as a tool to getting a lighter skin, aimed at the skin colour of Indians. However, in the aftermath of the protests against discrimination based on colour and Hindustan Unilever constantly needled to change the name of the product, HUI has announced that it would drop the word 'Fair' in its product in order to create a more inclusive version of the same, not based on skin colour. 

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