Fair and Lovely's classical Advertisement airhostess

The name of a popular skin cream, Fair and Lovely, troubles me. The signs Fair and Lovely have a paradigmatic relationship with one another. Together they signify that those who are fair skinned are lovely or beautiful. Is this truly fair to those who are dark skinned? Further, Fair and Lovely's advertisement also suggests a similar ideology.

The advertisement starts off with an old couple in an ordinary apartment. The couple's clothes are dull brown in colour and match their walls. The connotations of dull and brown are misery, poverty and unhappiness. These connotations are proved when the couple start to discuss their poverty.

As the conversation takes place, the husband mentions that he wishes they had a son to support them. Their dark-skinned daughter overhears this. She feels sad that her parents believe that she cannot support them. Here a common Indian myth is displayed. There is an ideology that sons are more able to carry out tasks because of their strength and can therefore support their parents financially. We learn of a code that signifies that daughters can only do housework and raise children. They cannot support their parents.

On returning to her room, the daughter spots an advertisement in the newspaper for the recruitment of air hostesses and sees it as a sign. She should become the "son" her parents never had by becoming an air hostess. However, she sees her dark-skin as a signifier, signifying ugliness and doubts her abilities. Just then, the television airs an advertisement for Fair and Lovely. Is this the answer to her problems?

The advertisement continues, showing the various properties of the cream. The properties of the cream are signs which have a syntagmatic relationship. The camera keeps shifting back to the girl who is now dressed in all pink and is walking confidently in a hallway. Her back is towards us. We as an audience learn that she is walking into a room where air hostess aspirants are being interviewed. She faces the interviewers and instantly dazzles them with her beauty and fairness. She doesn't need to show them her resume and has no trouble in landing the job.

It is important to note that she is dressed in pink. Her pink clothes are a sign. By using metonymy, we relate the colour pink to the logo of Fair and Lovely which is primarily pink. The connotation of the colour pink is femininity, signifying that she has become more feminine due to this product. The background is white. The connotations of the word white are purity or brightness. This signifies that her life has become "brighter" or more cheerful and that she has gained purity.

Upon returning home, she surprises her parents by taking them to an expensive restaurant. Her fair skin and the expensive restaurant act as indexical signs which lead us to believe that her fair skin is the reason for her wealth.

Therefore, we can see from this advertisement that the ideology of this company is that those who are fair can achieve great lengths. In my opinion, this is a wrong idea that is spreading among Indians who are becoming more and more self-conscious of their skin tones. Such advertisements increase the sense of inferiority due to skin colour. Wear your skin with pride!