If you’ve not seen it yet, Watsons Malaysia is in hot water for a Hari Raya ad (can we even call it an ad?) that gave the impression that darker skin is bad or not appealing. I could explain to you the story of Dayang Senandong or why Watsons feels Malaysians are terrible movie critics, but this post isn’t even about Watsons. In fact, we should thank Watsons for forcing us to have a very serious conversation on beauty and discrimination. More after the video (the good bit starts at 9.30).
While Watsons’ ad will go down as one of the worst festive ads in history and have you wonder what their marketing team was smoking when they came up with or approved this idea, it brings to light a very important topic – why do we still, in 2017, find lighter skinned more appealing than dark skinned?
Why are we angry with Watsons when every day we are told fair is beautiful by every cosmetic ad and by every cosmetic sales agent out there? Don’t believe me, walk over to the cosmetic section of your preferred supermarket and see how many items you can find that promise “skin whitening”. You see, Watsons may have made a terrible ad but in reality, Malaysia is still a society that wants to be fair as shown by how we gobble up skin whitening creams. We just don’t like it when other people tell us the truth about ourselves.
But rest assured Malaysia, we’re not alone in our terrible love for lighter skin. In North Asia (specifically China), tanned skin is commonly associated with blue collar work, which is considered inferior to sitting behind a desk in an air-conditioned office. If you’ve not seen it yet, a Chinese detergent company found this ad appropriate:
In India, the obsession with fairer skin is so bad that in 2009, an NGO started a “Dark is Beautiful” campaign that sought to stop discrimination against darker skinned women in India. India’s love affair with skin whitening cosmetics started in the 1970s when Unilever introduced the now infamous skin whitening product Fair & Lovely. Most Malaysian Indian girls, unfortunately, are likely also familiar with this snake oil in a tube.
Ram Subramaniam, also known as Voice of Ram, published an amazing video accusing Fair & Lovely of promoting “by becoming fairer, a dark skinned person can become successful in his or her professional and personal life”. Watch the amazing rant below.
While I would love to say that this form of discrimination is only rampant in third world Asia, we don’t have a monopoly on that. You may have recently seen a viral news story going around about a Swedish (Caucasian) woman marrying an Indian (but Swedish national) man. The couple creates youtube videos talking about their lives raising their young child but what made headlines was the vicious abuse the couple got in the comments section of the video and on social media. Statements like “why would you throw away your genes?” and “that baby is ugly” have no place in society, regardless if we’re in 2017 or 1917. You can read more about the story here.
Back to Watsons. The point I’m trying to make here is that while Watsons did make a terrible ad that insinuated that “black is ugly”, let’s not sweep the bigger issue under the rug. Many people still find fairer to be better, even if their social media posts say otherwise. Do you really want to make a change? Stop using skin whitening products, stop telling your friends/family to avoid the sunlight, and start supporting companies that put darker skinned people as the face of their products.
Good evening, Malaysia.
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