Can advertising change India's obsession with fair skin?

In India, a country where the majority of the population is dark-skinned, there is a widely held belief that dark complexions are inferior to fair ones. This prejudice manifests itself in everything from hiring practices that favor light-skinned employees to matrimonial ads that list fairness as a non-negotiable characteristic of the future bride or groom. In the media, light-skinned actors and models are in high demand, while dark-skinned performers are rarely seen on screen. The message is clear: fair skin represents beauty and success, and as a result Indians are keen consumers of products that promise to lighten skin.

This uncomfortable fact has spawned dueling ad campaigns on the skin-bleaching front. In March of this year, an organization called Women of Worth launched a "Dark is Beautiful" campaign to draw attention to the effects of racial prejudice in India. The print ad features the actress Nandita Das urging women to throw out their fairness creams and abandon the belief that dark skin is ugly. Meanwhile, in early July, the cosmetics company Emami released a competing television ad starring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. In the ad, Khan tosses a tube of fairness cream to a young fan, telling him that fairness is the secret to success in life. In response, the "Dark is Beautiful" campaign filed a petition on Change.org asking Emami to suspend the ad on the grounds that it is discriminatory.

The advertising war over discrimination highlights the distinctly modern way that racism is unfolding in India. While racism runs deep in India's history, its roots intertwined with caste and colonialism, in today's India, it finds expression in consumer behavior and corporate advertising. When I spoke to Nandita Das last week, she argued that India's history of racism is not central to the discussion, because the prejudice against dark skin has taken on new forms in the modern world. "I don't believe we have to keep going back into history," says Das. "We're not just a product of our traditions: we're also part of the globalized world. Today, the fact that such discrimination continues to exist is a function of consumerism. The market is waiting to cash in on people's hidden aspirations." Full story...

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