#BlackLivesMatter could change fairness campaigns, mindsets: Kavitha Emmanuel
As Johnson & Johnson folds up its skin-whitening range, Emmanuel, the founder of the 'Dark is Beautiful' campaign says the movement shows how colourism and racism are related, and highlights the responsibility for brands and advertisers
Image: Kavitha Emmanuel, founder of Women of Worth
“We all bleed the same no matter what our skin colour or status in society,” says Kavitha Emmanuel, founder of Women of Worth. With a slew of beauty soap brands tweaking their messaging to attract consumers who are now more concerned about protection from germs and infection than beauty post Covid-19, Emmanuel—who started the Dark Is Beautiful campaign in 2009 as an awareness and advocacy campaign to fight colourism—finds it strange that brands that were vocal about promoting beauty stereotypes are changing their strategy given a change in circumstances.
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“The threat of a deadly disease flattens the field and reveals who we really are,” she says. People would get a clue to filter false messages and toxic beliefs endorsed in advertisements now, she adds.
Last week, consumer-products giant Johnson & Johnson decided to stop selling skin-whitening creams as global debate about racial inequality—triggered by the death of George Floyd in police custody in the US last month—gathers steam across the world.
“Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names, or claims on our dark spot reducer products, represent fairness or white as better than your own unique skin tone,” Johnson & Johnson reportedly said in a media statement. “This was never our intention—healthy skin is beautiful skin,” it added.
Back in India, Emmanuel contends that advertisements don’t just sell a product. They also sell an idea, and very often, a way of life. “Let's be wise and not fall for beauty stereotypes endorsed by brands,” she says in an interview to Forbes India. Edited excerpts:
