Unfair and Lovely

As a business journalist I go to umpteen number of press meets and product launches and after a while I tend to get into a trance. So and So Pvt. Ltd launches an ultra new product with extra new features and it is so unique that it gives you an out of the world experience!

In one such brand management seminar, various issues like celebrity endorsements, employee referrals, brand dilution, core competency, thinking out of the box, etc, were talked being about. After two drowsy lectures, the third speaker was good enough make me sit up and notice. He was the renowned creative director Mr.Balkrishnan of O&M or 'adman Balky' as he was popularly called. He was talking about how to solve a problem in advertising a product. When he said, "If your client has a problem, rejoice, you have business", everybody straightened their ears.

As a typical example he took out his campaign on 'Fair & Lovely' TV commercial, where a dark girl is crying over her fate and after using the cream, life changes dramatically. He said, his client HLL came over to him and told about their problem of deteriorating sales, despite a great brand recall. He thought about an idea how dark girl is always cursed by her parents about not being good enough to get a guy. How the so called 'Jaathak' of a dark girl never changes.

This concept was very well highlighted and the TV ad was so well received that Fair & Lovely sales zoomed up. But soon all women organisations went up in arms against it and his team had to change the strategy next time. He quoted his 'Fair & Lovely Dark Circles' ad (that cute girl saying "matching not matching!") was brought in to pacify the moralistic hypocrite women's lib brigade.

After the lecture, I posed him a query, "Does the product live up to the awesome claims of your commercial?" He asked me, "Do you use Fair & Lovely?" I said no. He said "Use it and you will know the difference!" The audience had a good laugh at my expense.

I came back wondering why don't all unfair women in this world use this miracle cure and become fair. I thought i should tell my dusky girlfriend who is worried that my mom doesn't like her colour. Later I learnt that she does use it and believes that it has done some good thing. But I told her I loved her since she is dark and I don't want her to be fair. She tells me that my mom will never like her that way. I am still perplexed about who is unfair in this world, my mom, HLL company, or Mr.Balky or the whole society?