Cosmetic giant L’Oreal to remove words ‘white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening’

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Cosmetic behemoth L’Oreal announced this week the company would delete the word “whitening” from its skin-lightening products in light of ongoing protests over racial equality.

The French cosmetic leader also said it will be dropping the term “lightening” as well from similar products, Fox News reported.

“The L’Oreal Group has decided to remove the words white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening from all its skin evening products,” said the company in a statement.

While the move is the latest among large corporations to signal their willingness to become more racially inclusive — which implies that they weren’t willing to do so before recent protests following the death of George Floyd in May — it also belies the fact that the products were in demand.

Fox News adds:

L’Oreal’s skin brightening creams are amongst the most popular on the market and are targeted towards Asian, African and Caribbean buyers who face a cultural stigma where lighter skin is perceived as more desirable.

The French company isn’t the first cosmetics giant to drop ‘racially-tinged’ terms from products. Consumer products maker Unilever announced earlier this week it would drop its “Fair & Lovely” cream, despite its popularity throughout Asia.

Unilever reportedly generated $500 million in revenue in India alone last year from the cream, Yahoo! News reported. In a statement, the company said it is “committed to celebrating all skin tones.”

Also, Johnson & Johnson announced last week it would no longer sell some Neutrogena and Clean & Clear products which are marketed as reducers of dark spots throughout Asia and the Middle East.

“Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names or claims on our Neutrogena and Clean & Clear dark-spot reducer products represent fairness or white as better than your own unique skin tone,” a Johnson & Johnson statement said.

“This was never our intention -— healthy skin is beautiful skin,” the statement continued.

Other major corporations and brands that are planning name and/or logo changes include:

— Mars said it will redevelop its Uncle Ben’s brand, which currently utilizes a black man as its logo.

— Quaker Oats (PepsiCo) has already announced it would drop its logo as well, which is an image of a black woman that had actually been transformed over the decades from a southern black ‘mammy’ caricature.

— In Australia, Allen’s Lollies-branded Red Skins and Chicos confectioneries, which are made by Nestle, will be renamed over perceptions of racial connotations in the existing names.

— Colgate-Palmolive will “reexamine” whether to rename its Darlie toothpaste brand, sold in Asia, but means “toothpaste for black people” in Chinese. It was named “Darkie” until 1989.

Not all major brands are bending a knee to the Leftist outrage mobs, so to speak. Kellogg’s last week refused to apologize for the monkey caricature used on its Coco Pops breakfast cereal.

“The monkey mascot that appears on both white and milk chocolate Coco Pops was created in the 1980s to highlight the playful personality of the brand,” the company said in a statement.

“As part of our ambition to bring fun to the breakfast table, we have a range of characters that we show on our cereal boxes, including tigers, giraffes, crocodiles, elves and a narwhal.”

 

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