'Be the change you want to see', the saying is known by everyone but it hardly followed by anyone. A 22-years-old activist from Mumbai Chandana Hiran forced FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever to drop the name ‘Fair’ from its famous skin-whitening cream ‘Fair and Lovely’.
Fair and Lovely is an age-old skin cream by Hindustan Unilever. However, no one paid their attention that the skin cream openly flaunts colour based racism.
The woman who has triggered this change is 22-year old Chandana Hiran, who started a petition on Change.org, demanding that Fair & Lovely change their narrative after years of regressive advertisements and branding. While there is no direct mention of her petition in Unilever’s statement, she has garnered massive support with nearly 15,000 signatures in just two weeks.
In an interview Chandana said, “It's absurd how so many girls of my skin colour find almost no representation of their skin tone in popular culture. I find no leading actresses of my colour, I find no magazines or ads endorsing my skin colour. Even filters on social media platforms and photo editing sites constantly focus on making you look fairer.”
Chandana was inspired by Black Lives Matter campaign in the United States.
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