A highly well-known local brand has stumbled its way into controversy after releasing a whitening cream ad in 2024.
The ad in question goes the extra mile by addressing men, and telling them that their partners can be as fair as the talent in the ad. So we’re not just talking about colourism but the male gaze as well.
Let’s dig into the scandal and try to understand why any brand would continue to sell and market whitening products.
The Backlash
The reception is unhappy at best and hostile at worst. Whitening creams are an especially sensitive topic for many Pakistanis so the ad struck a nerve.
Many netizens are calling out the ad for how it pits women against each other with the lines “Apni partner ko dekho aur ab mujhe dekho.” This is a valid point to raise when you consider how the subcontinent has treated women with darker skin, compared to their light-skinned counterparts. This sort of attitude aims to reduce women to the colour of their skin and remove their individuality.
Others highlighted how misogynistic it is to target men with the communication since many women are often demeaned for their looks and such behaviour should be discouraged rather than promoted.
And yet others were baffled that multiple people saw the concept and script for the ad and no one vetted the problematic portions. Or rather, no one scrapped it for its controversial nature.
There is a general sentiment amongst all that are bashing the ad that in the present day there is no place for such an aggressive approach to skin whitening.
How Did This Happen?
It’s a common opinion among people that Pakistani ads are never particularly interesting or creative, but even so, they operate based on what sells in the market.
So how then, did theyend up making an ad that any agency would immediately veto? There are all kinds of explanations from poor market research to the brand’s poor vetting process, but perhaps there’s something else to it.
What if this ad and the product itself, exist because these items are still popular and purchased despite the backlash?
Let’s examine this.
For starters, the brand in question isn’t the only brand that sells whitening creams in Pakistan. Other popular brands also have such products and we’re all aware of Glow and Lovely. So maybe we as a society aren’t taking full responsibility when we critique such things.
We express distaste for whitening creams, but how do we uplift anyone with dark skin? Do we see actors and models with dark skin? Do we remind our children that their dark skin is beautiful? How many mothers reject ‘rishtas’ because they don’t want their child to marry someone with dark skin? These are all questions to ponder when we talk about treating people equally.
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The History Behind it All
The brand didn’t release this ad in a vacuum. There’s a long-standing history in Pakistan of colourism which stems from a mix of classism and colonialism. The classism established in our psyche that dark skin is “dirty” and that fair skin is a sign of wealth and purity. Colonialism ensured we internalised our supposed inferiority and that those with fair skin were smarter, wiser, and superior.
While there have been efforts in Pakistan to try and rectify the centuries of damage, (Glow and Lovely’s rebrand is a small win in that regard) it seems that progress has slowed to a halt. Netizens have done well to hit back at the brand but will we see a genuine change in their optics?
So What Now?
For starters, the brand in question needs to pull the ad and issue an apology. This will for sure appease most of the crowd that criticised the ad, but that doesn’t mean the product will be removed from their catalogue.
At the end of the day, the brand is an established business that will go where the money is, so if our society doesn’t challenge colourism collectively and at the individual level there’s a high chance of a repeat offence.
Hopefully, the reception will help prevent such a faux pas in the future. But one has to ask, will they pull their whitening cream products? For that matter, will any brand?