Hindustan Unilever rebrands skin lightening cream 'Fair & Lovely' as 'Glow & Lovely' after backlash

New Delhi: FMCG major HUL on Thursday said it has rebranded its popular skincare brand ‘Fair & Lovely’ as ‘Glow & Lovely’ after dropping the word ‘fair’ in its name.

According to the company, it is taking a more inclusive vision of positive beauty while introducing ‘Glow & Lovely’ — the new name for the brand.

Meanwhile, the men’s range of its products will be called ‘Glow & Handsome’, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) said in a statement.

“Over the next few months, Glow & Lovely will be on the shelves, and future innovations will deliver on this new proposition,” said HUL in a statement.

Earlier on 25 June, HUL had announced dropping the word ‘fair’ from its popular skincare brand ‘Fair & Lovely’, citing its vision to adopt a holistic approach to beauty. The company had attributed the move to its rebranding exercise and said it would seek regulatory approvals.

As part of the rebranding, HUL will also be announcing a new name for the ‘Fair & Lovely Foundation’, set up in 2003 to offer scholarships to women to help them pursue their education, the statement had said.

HUL, a subsidiary of British-Dutch multinational company Unilever PLC, had approached the Controller General of Patent Design and Trademark to get the name ‘Glow & Lovely’’ registered.

Several cosmetic brands have been under the scanner over their products that promote skin fairness for stereotyping racial types, which intensified further in the wake of ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in the US.

Recently the US healthcare and FMCG giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has stopped the sale of its skin-whitening creams globally, including India.

French personal care maker the L’Oréal Group also last week said it will drop words such as “white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening” from all its skincare products.