Global Journal of Management and Business Research, E: Marketing, Volume 21 Issue 4

Glow and Lovely: ‘Old Wine in a New Bottle’ Farhad Uddin I. I ntroduction edia contents have persuasive power and long lasting effects on the cognitive process of individuals. The audiences acquire perceptions and attitudes modeled by the media (Bandura, 1986). Cosmetic companies sell the perception of general people about beauty through their advertisements and reinforce it to promote their business. Even they do it in disguise form using a positive name and without changing any content in advertisements. Unilever, a well-profiting cosmetic company, changing its product’s name ‘Fair and lovely’ to ‘Glow and Lovely’ does the same thing as other cosmetic companies do in their advertisements looking like old wine in a new bottle (Sharma, 2020). It has added 'Glow' to its products like Glow & Lovely Advanced Multivitamin, Glow & Lovely Face Wash, Glow & Lovely BB Cream, Glow & Lovely Soap, Glow & Lovely Winter Glow, and Lux Soap. II. D efinitions of T erms Glow: According to Cambridge Dictionary, ‘glow’ means continuous light and heat that is produced by something. That means if the light is produced or reflected by black material, the glow will be black shine. If the light is produced or reflected by red material, the glow will be red shine. Beauty: According to the Oxford Dictionary beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. “Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty” (Hume, 1757). According to the great philosopher Immanuel Kant, the Pleasure and pain are connected to the human mental state, and as his concept beauty does not exist in things. Beauty exists in the mind of the subject that is why it is subjective (Kant, 1790). The definitions clarify that beauty does not depend on the skin color of human beings. III. B ackground of the S tudy On May 25, George Floyd, a black man, was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, who pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Demonstrations over the death of George Floyd and others broke out all over the world. Millions of people in the United States participated in the movement called Black Lives Matter. Protest against advertisements and marketing of skin lightening creams was strengthened, and Unilever acknowledged the branding suggests "a singular ideal of beauty." Unilever would rename Fair & Lovely, a skin-lightening cream that has been criticized for promoting negative stereotypes around dark skin tones. It promised to remove references to "whitening" or "lightening" on the products, which are sold across Asia (Jones, 2020). M © 2021 Global Journals Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXI Issue IV Version I Year 2021 ( ) E 5 Author: University of Barishal, Bangladesh. e-mail: farhaddumcj1991@gmail.com Abstract- Cosmetic companies like Unilever sell the perception of general people about beauty through their advertisements and reinforce it to promote their business. Even they do it in disguise form using a positive name and without changing any content in advertisements. By using qualitative semiotic analysis, this research shows how fair- skinned models, white color, and white light are used in the advertisements of Unilever’s recently name changed product “Glow and Lovely” on Bangladeshi TV channels. In the ads of it, any darkness on the skin is shown as unexpected and a hindrance to beauty, success, empowerment, and equality. All of these contents promote fairness as beauty and sustain discrimination based on skin color in society. The research also reveals a close relationship between the perceptions of general people about beauty and the meanings of the ‘signs ’ used in the sampled advertisements. Through semiotic analysis, this research shows how fair-skinned models, white color, and white light are used in advertisements of Unilever ’ s recently name changed product ‘Glow and Lovely’ on Bangladeshi TV channels to promote fairness as beauty and sustain discrimination based on skin color in the society. Though name has been changed, there is no change in contents. Instead, after semiotic analysis, the contents reveal that the advertisements of ‘Glow and Lovely’ promote fair skin color as a symbol of beauty, success, and empowerment. The research also reveals a close relation between the perceptions of general people about beauty and the meanings of the ‘signs’ used in the sampled advertisements. TVC: TVC means Television Commercial or audio-visual story of an advertisement. Although Corporations like Unilever has been widely criticized for profiting on colorism, it continues to produce advertisements that equate light skin with beauty, success, and empowerment. Skin lightening creams are positioned as alchemic agents of self- transformation (Nadeem, 2014). After years of criticism, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement sparked by George Floyd's death, Unilever renamed popular skin- lightening brand “Fair & Lovely” as “Glow and Lovely,”