No longer just for the lovely, Unilever’s “Fair and Lovely” is being marketed to men (see here and here for ads for “Fair and Lovely”). The marketing is interesting on at least three levels:
(1) The ads exploits men’s insecurity about their appearance, just as they do for women.
(2) However, they masculinize the product with the “Fair and Handsome” name and, in the second commercial, by emphasizing the sporty-fighty-ness of the men using the product (see also our posts on make-up for men, masculinizing hair product, and selling hair dye to men).
(3) Though I don’t understand the language, the imagery of the arrows representing “Fair and Lovely” bouncing off of men’s skin seems to affirm the idea that men are inherently and biologically different from women… so much so that there would need to be a totally different product (kind of like the old “P.H. balanced for a woman” argument). Do correct me if I’m mistaken.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgBevCTBTJw&feature=related[/youtube]
Via MultiCultClassics.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 7
Esme — November 6, 2008
Doesn't Unilever also own Dove? If so, this is just more confirmation to me that the Dove Real Beauty campaign is total self-serving crap (see also: Axe ads)
Juuro — February 26, 2009
An additional thing that struck me was what I read as Europeanization being a selling point; the models are shown as getting a shade or two more pale in their skin color -- which is possibly what the "fair" in the product name refers to. The North European beauty ideal has become global, it would appear.
lulu — March 8, 2009
The wording in both ads is similar, emphasizing that a man shouldn't secretly apply girls' fairness cream. The arrows show how a man's "tough skin" is affected by the double strength men's cream. The second ad says that this toughness is due to shaving. It also says that a man should "live openly", presumably avoiding the shame of using girly products.
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Tumor — December 26, 2009
I find it extremly ironic that white people in America by products to darken their skin and people in India buy products to lighten their skin. Unilever seems to be the only one benefitting.
Matthew Pantera — June 3, 2010
This blog is helpful for me to select the right product.
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