The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2020
Fair & Lovely became Glow & Lovely, but critics called it a cosmetic rebrand
In 2020, Unilever renamed Fair & Lovely to Glow & Lovely after racial-justice protests, but the product and market position stayed largely the same.
Hindustan Unilever · 2020-07
What happened
Fair & Lovely was the world's best-selling skin-lightening cream, generating more than $500 million a year for Unilever, mostly in India. For decades it had been criticised for equating lighter skin with beauty, success and social mobility.
In June 2020, after the global Black Lives Matter protests, Unilever announced it would drop the word 'Fair' from the brand and remove words such as 'whitening' and 'lightening' from its products. The brand became Glow & Lovely in July 2020, with a men's range renamed Glow & Handsome.
Critics and many consumers saw the change as cosmetic. The product formulation remained similar, and the advertising continued to emphasise glowing skin in ways that looked little different from the old fairness messaging. Rival Emami also threatened legal action over the Glow & Handsome name.
Unilever defended the move as a first step in a broader shift toward inclusive beauty. The case is now widely used to discuss whether rebranding can outrun a product's original purpose, and how much companies will change when their core business model depends on the old message.
Why it happened
- The rebrand addressed the brand name and advertising language but not the product category or consumer promise.
- Global political pressure forced a fast response before the company had a fully developed alternative positioning.
- The skin-lightening market remained large and profitable, giving Unilever little incentive to abandon it entirely.
- Competitors were ready to capture any customers who felt the old message was no longer available.
The lesson
Renaming a product does not rename what it does. If the business model depends on the old promise, the rebrand will be read as performance rather than change.
Aftermath
Glow & Lovely remained a major brand. Unilever continued to shift advertising away from fairness claims, but the product category persisted. The case is widely discussed in marketing and diversity conversations as an example of shallow rebranding.
Sources
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