Dove's racist ad (again) shows the dark side of cosmetics industry
The outrage resonates in India, with our national obsession with fair skin.
Popular skincare brand Dove has apologised for and withdrawn one of its advertisements after massive outrage and accusations of racism.
The advertisement shows a black woman removing her brown T-shirt to reveal a white woman, who then removes her beige T-shirt to reveal an Asian woman. While the company withdrew the ad, it has, once again, brought into focus how deeply ingrained racism and colourism are in the society — they are entrenched in a way that many fail to recognise they are indulging in it.
Okay, Dove...One racist ad makes you suspect.Two racist ads makes you kinda guilty. pic.twitter.com/hAwNCN84h2
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) October 8, 2017
An image we recently posted on Facebook missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully. We deeply regret the offense it caused.
— Dove (@Dove) October 7, 2017
The outrage resonates in India, with our obsession with fair skin.
An advertisement campaign is not a typo one makes, inadvertently. It must have gone through multiple levels of planning and discussion. That nobody red-flagged it or any warning to the effect was ignored is no credit to Dove, especially as this is not the first time that the company has found its campaigns creating controversy.
Earlier this year, it designed bottles of shower gel in six different shapes, seeking to "evoke the shapes, sizes, curves and edges that combine to make every woman their very own limited edition". After backlash that they were reducing women to the shapes of their bodies, the bottles did not go to production.
In 2015, the brand was criticised for coming up with a cream for "normal to dark skin", with many pointing out it implied "dark" was not normal. Before that, in 2011, a campaign showing "before and after" pictures of three women had come under fire, as the models appeared to go from "dark" to "white", much like a shade card.
Hello @Dove. Can you take a question, What does ‘Normal to Dark skin’ mean???: @PJDlamini1 pic.twitter.com/yHWywczEX5
— Thembisa Mdoda (@tembisa) October 8, 2017
Dove, in its statement after the most recent controversy, has said it seeks to celebrate "diversity of real beauty". In India, one of its campaigns, "Let's break the rules of beauty", has been appreciated for showing the variety of "beautiful" existing in our country. Its Real Women campaign of 2004 was among the earliest to feature women of different skin tones and sizes.
When a company which avowedly recognises that beauty comes in various shapes and shades "misses the mark" so often, what can we hope from the "Fair and Handsome" and "Naturally Fair Herbal Fairness" creams of the world?
This missing of mark is more than just a poor marketing strategy. Skincare product companies set and control the discourse on what is considered pretty, and hence desirable. When they promote lopsided and ridiculous standards of beauty, they are negatively impacting the self-confidence of those whose bodies do not conform to these standards.
The cosmetics industry has long depended on making people feel insecure about themselves: hair loss, bad skin, excess body weight can hurt your job prospects by getting you overlooked, make it tough for you to be popular in college, make it impossible for you to cinch a rishta, but worry not, the company has kindheartedly come up with a product to rescue you!
But when these companies seek to position one shade of skin as more beautiful than others, mere competition becomes a game — more sinister, reinforcing traditional power structures of exclusion and exploitation.
Dove may redo its campaign, but the damage created by such irresponsibility is not as easy to undo.