My least favourite advertisement

Though I am usually not deeply affected by advertisements, the advertisements created by the "fairness" cream industry in India bother me due to various reasons. Although the fixation with fair and light complexion is becoming less obvious now, I remember it being a major part of advertisements when I was growing up. The commercials though, still existent are a lot less blatant than they were back in the day. These advertisements mainly sold "skin-lightening" products, aimed towards "dark-skinned" and "dusky" Indian girls. They did so by placing these women in scenarios wherein they would face problems during job interviews, getting married and even being victims of sexism by their own families in some cases just because they were "dark-skinned" and therefore, less confident. Then the commercial would show the girl using a cream called "Fair and Lovely", which apparently lightened her complexion over a span of certain weeks. This in turn made her popular, confident and of course got her the job as well as acceptance from the society. The idea that having a lighter complexion is indicative of talent or confidence is a running theme in most of these advertisements. Since a high percentage of Indian marriages are arranged, it is almost like a marriage between the families of the boy and the girl. One of the unsaid "requirements" of the girl from the boy's side of the family is that of fairness. Even within families, mothers express grave concerns if their daughters' face is blemished or their skin tone darkens due to tanning or something. Though it sounds bizarre, this concept is so normal in India that people have accepted it as something that just happens. However, some of these ads have now been banned by the Advertising Standards Council of India as they were blatantly propagating very inappropriate stereotypes. Some of the fairness creams even came with  a scale of different skin colours from darkest to lightest, so one could keep track of how "effective" the cream was. Such advertisements, in my opinion, are worse than advertisements in general because they openly attack women and make claims which end up with women questioning their self-confidence and doubting their abilities.

This is an old print ad of the same cream which made such commercials.