Cosmetic changes

Brands need to start reshaping consumer opinion

Black Lives Matter has had global reverberations, including in India, provoking responses from three multinational cosmetic brands: Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Hindustan Unilever (HUL), and L’Oreal. J&J has discontinued its Neutrogena and Clean & Clear products, which were advertised as removers of dark spots, in Asia; HUL has responded by announcing that it would rebrand its Rs 2,000-crore best-selling “Fair & Lovely” by dropping the term “fair” from the label and product literature; now L’Oreal has said it would remove the terms “whitening” and “fairness” from its skincare products. These are certainly the right signals to send in a country