Vaseline ad campaign sparks controversy over skin-whitening creams

[Jazzy]

A new Vaseline ad campaign in India urging men to whiten their faces has sparked international controversy, with critics of the ads contending that Vaseline — a subsidiary of the Dutch-Anglo conglomerate Unilever — is promoting the notion that only white skin is beautiful. But in India and in other countries, face-whitening creams — and all their accompanying cultural hangups — are nothing new.



Unilever released a Facebook application that permits men to upload photos of themselves and then transform their profile photos by lightening them, much like they promise their new lightening cream will do. The company recruited Bollywood star Shahid Kapur to be the face of the campaign.



Link with pictures: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upsho...sparks-controversy-over-skin-whitening-creams

 

[Cranos]

I think people are seeing racism everywhere. In several Asian countries a pale skin is considered beautiful, it's been like that for a long time before they even made contact with white people.