The commercials for cleansing creams currently being shown on television are RIDICULOUS, SCANDALOUS and AWFUL!

What do the companies and advertising agencies that hire the advertising contracts for such products try to represent?

Do you mean by any chance that girls can be successful only if they are blonde and that all brown girls should buy their “be beautiful in 4 weeks” formula or they will perish from the face of the Indian earth? Even if they want to insist that “justice brings a good spouse, a good job…and, ultimately, success!” So I would like to point out that one of the most developed nations in the world, the US, does not have a color concept. Yes, they use tanning creams because their skin has freckles and they just want to hide all the freckles in an even tan all over their face. So apparently all these brunette girls who find it “impossible to fulfill their dreams” in India can go west and be total hits.

I’m not preaching either. I just want to say… wake up to reality!

This country has enough problems to deal with. And just when we had started to move on and leave behind the taboos related to caste system, gender, color, race and economic position, these ads appeared and fed the same old concepts in the minds of young people over and over again. time.

More now, in the current age of individualism, fairness creams should not be positioned as a product for people who lack something. Ads should not take advantage of negative aspects. Rather, they should be just a means of making an informed decision and should refrain from using the platforms of “girl vs. boy,” “dark and unsuccessful vs. fair and successful,” etc.

The current positioning platform that ads use has a negative connotation. It is usually given to a girl by another friend who sees the deplorable state in which the first one is. Thus, the latter is shown showering sympathy for a helpless creature who has been abandoned by family members or a lover. In fact, this makes it a product that is supposed to be used in secret.

Think about it. If the ad shows a girl using a fairness cream to overcome an inferiority complex implanted in her as a result of being an abandoned daughter, an abandoned lover, or a loser in the corporate world, no one would agree to be a user of that product. publicly. Potential users of such a product would be hesitant to go into a store and say loud and clear, “I want a fair cream.”

Also many women who actually use whitening creams like to pretend they use them like any other oil-based moisturizer or cold cream for the skin. Nobody wants to claim that they actually use it to lighten their skin.

Consider another product, which claims to have a similar effect on the skin, albeit much faster and lasts only temporarily: face whitening creams. Note that these products are also used by women across the country and without hesitation, although the effects are more amazing than those of fairness creams. The main players in this field are Fem, Jolen, etc. These creams were advertised just to advertise their effects and there were no negative emotional attachments. Remember the ad “gori gori-fem fem se” for the Fem whitening cream ad. It had a lasting positive effect on the audience, as the “get it right in 15 minutes” message was very clear. And the girl was not shown using the product because she had been rejected but she was shown using the product to look more beautiful for an already existing date.

Even whitening creams can adopt the strategy of positioning their product as a beauty enhancer rather than a necessity for survival. This will make the product more respectable, and it will not be embarrassing to use a cleansing cream. And if a girl uses a whitening cream, she doesn’t have to wonder what her friends are thinking of her; that if her boyfriend just left her, or if her parents have stopped loving her just because she can’t succeed in the big world because she is a dark person, etc.

Some specific points need to be noted here, such as the following myth spread by one of the ads:

If you are born a daughter, you are a burden to your parents if you are not a light-skinned creature, as being dark will not bring you any job and therefore you will not be in a position to provide financial support to your family. . You will hear your father muttering things like “kaash mera ladka hota” (I wish I had a son). This leaves you in a state of total confusion and depression and suddenly you find refuge in a cream, which promises a wonderful career ahead. This will transform your whole life. You will be seen in a new light by everyone at home and at work. People will go crazy over your fair skin and complexion, even if the job profile has nothing to do with your color. Your run will be directly proportional to the rate at which your skin tones become lighter.

Fact: No father will say such an uncomfortable thing to a daughter if he truly loves her. Parents are always there to help you in any situation, no matter what. And if a father harbors such thoughts, then he is not worthy enough for you to spend money on buying a cream that promises you Cinderella looks overnight, and then find a job, and then take your father to have a coffee, the bill for which is paid, of your hard earned money.

As for getting a job on the basis of your colour, we are all aware of the current situation in India. Current economic trends in the corporate world favor only domain expertise, professionalism, willingness to work hard, healthy competition, good communication skills, and integrity. If you possess all of the above qualities but your skin is a darker shade, you will most likely get your dream job (if there is an opening and you have applied for it). Now, if you are fair, you will be accepted for the vacancy only if the person who is interviewing you is from the lineage of someone like HITLER who believes that all dark souls should disappear from the face of the earth and also that all fair people are intelligent. , honest, ethical and hardworking. What are the odds in favor of such a thing happening?

Another myth spread by fairness crèmes ads is that only blonde girls get the eligible bachelors. Once you become lighter (in color), the guy who has spurned you till date will fall in love with you and propose to you. And then the two of them will live ‘fairly’ forever.

Forget this! I believe that it takes much more than a color change to start and maintain a good relationship.

The Indian has every right to look pretty in her own way. For some attractive people, dark skin with long braids like Bipasha Basu’s can be a good option. For others, it might be short hair with a blonde shimmer like Yana’s. For some, it might mean blurry eyes on a round, dark face like Rani’s. I am in no way implying that these women are the ultimate epitomes of beauty; rather, I am just citing a few examples, as most of you may be aware of these names.

Many of us go to the beauty salon and are treated in various ways. So what’s wrong with an equity cream being advertised? I never said they shouldn’t be advertised. My only concern is that they are not supported by meaningless emotional notions.

Instead of getting into the “whys” of using a fairness cream, ads should focus on the “whats” of it.

By “why” I mean the reason people/girls/ladies will use the cleansing cream. This should be left to the viewer’s imagination if he can’t think of wise ways to convey it. Some of the harmless ways to advertise a fairness cream can be drawn from a situation I just described; women in a beauty salon … a beauty salon owner suddenly comes across a product that will make her a hit with her clients for finding a solution to dark skin. Now each of her clients might have their own reasons for buying the cream. Sell ​​the cream for “what it” does, functionally, not how it will change someone’s life because, after all, she can’t do it.

Another interesting consumer perception is that men frequent beauty salons more often than their female counterparts. There is huge untapped potential on your side of the market.

Keeping all the above facts in mind, I have come up with some alternative positioning platforms for an equity cream:

A beauty secret between two male friends or friends.

A secret passed down from a mother to her daughter

A happy product for those happy moments such as marriage, parties, anniversaries, etc.

A possession to be proud of and not a product to be given away to someone inferior to whom you want to shower sympathy.

It’s about time we stopped ridiculous dark colors! However, if a person wants to get rid of it, they should feel comfortable using a fairness cream.