Fair and Lovely
INDIAN COSMETIC MARKET SIZE: U.S. $950 MN. CUSTOMER BASE: 27 MN TARGET MARKET: YOUNG WOMEN 18-35 1. Is it ethical to sell a product that is, at best, only mildly effective? Discuss. 2. Is it ethical to exploit cultural norms and values to promote a product? Discuss. No, it is not ethical. From this case, we can easily find out that the sales of the Fair & lovely and Fairever are totally based on the success of the advertisements. Skin color is a powerful theme in India and Asia where a lighter color represents a higher status. Both of the companies take advantage of the truth of the dark skin of the Indian people and emphasize a lot on the benefit of having fair skin. For example, in the HLL’s advertisement of “fairer girl gets the boy theme”, it featured a dark-skinned girl who eventually became a successful flight attendant due to the use of the “fairness cream”. This supposed that women’s success is mainly due to the fair skin and beauty but not their real ability or education background. It’s a kind of misleading advertisement and propagate. 3. Is the advertising of Fair & Lovely demeaning to women or is it portraying a product not too dissimilar to cosmetics in general? However, it used other element and stories to convince the customers that if they use its products, they will be successful in their career and probably have a higher social status. This is quite negative, since it supposed that the main qualification for woman to get a job is the way she looks but not the capability within herself. I think it’s a kind of demeaning women regardless of the social influence. The derision of any race, caste, skin color, creed and nationality should be avoided in the advertisements. 4.. In light of AIDWA’s charges, how would you suggest Fair & Lovely promote its product? Discuss. Would your response be different if Fairever continues to use “fairness” as a theme of its promotion? Discuss. My suggestion is that Fair & Lovely may emphasize more on the