Fair and Lovely

Saja describes the Indian obsession with fairness and the beauty products and advertisements that come with it.

ADVERTISING: India's "White Beauty" ads and the fair skin fixation
According to The Independent, women's activists in India are upset about a television ad campaign pushing Pond's "White Beauty" cream. The advertisements, in the form of a multi-episode "miniseries," featuring Bollywood stars, has Saif Ali Khan choosing Neha Dhupia over the "dusky" Priyanka Chopra, who inevitably places her hopes for love in the cream's transformative power. The spot ends with a tantalizing offer: "pale white or pinkish white; you choose."

While the spot is laughably ridiculous, it's also racist, and a testament to the rampant hysterical colorism in South Asia (and amongst South Asians in the diaspora). One wishes the cultural confidence that economic power has afforded India would also help undo our colonially inspired fixation on skin color; but with such a large market for skin lightening products, and not just for women, the likelihood of this is slim. And desi racism isn't just reflexive; as recent events illustrate, we have a long way to go.

More on the campaign at LiveMint.com:

The campaign was aired on 46 channels including major Hindi general entertainment channels, niche as well as regional channels. The first

episode is 45-seconds long, and new episodes will be aired every 15 days.

“Every episode leaves you at that point where you want to know what happens next,” says Zenobia Pithawalla, senior creative director at Ogilvy and Mather Pvt. Ltd, the ad agency that designed the campaign.

The rest of the story will play out over the next few months and viewers will be able to see, in true Bollywood style, how Chopra transforms herself from an ugly duckling to a beautiful woman.