Unilever, which has brands such as Dove, Lifebuoy, Axe, Sunsilk and Glow & Lovely, announced on Tuesday that it is removing the word ‘normal’ from its packaging and advertising. The removal of the word from all of the company’s beauty and personal care packaging and ads is a part of its launch of the ‘Positive Beauty’ strategy.
Unilever also said it will not digitally alter a person’s body shape, size, proportion or skin colour in its brand advertising, and will increase the number of advertisements portraying people from diverse groups who are under-represented.
In a statement, Unilever said that ‘Positive Beauty’ sets out several progressive commitments and actions for its beauty and personal care brands to “champion a new era of beauty which is equitable and inclusive, as well as sustainable for the planet”.
Unilever said it commissioned a 10,000 person study across nine countries. It said it found that 56% think that the beauty and personal care industry can make people feel excluded, 52% say they now pay more attention to a company’s stance on societal issues before buying products and seven in ten people say that using the word ‘normal’ on product packaging and advertising has a negative impact. For younger people – those aged 18-35 – this rises to eight in ten, Unilever added.
In India, 64% of people surveyed said they agreed that the industry makes certain people feel excluded, and 59% said the industry makes certain people feel bad about the way they look and about themselves. “The beauty industry is seen as contributing to the spread of narrow beauty ideals: over six in ten people in India (63%) agree that the BPC industry shares narrow beauty ideals, and two in three (66%) think that the industry is pressurising people into thinking they need to look a certain way and contributes to narrow beauty ideals,” Unilever said.
Hindustan Unilever’s flagship skincare product was earlier Fair & Lovely from which it dropped the word ‘Fair’ last year. At the time, reports suggested that it held 50-70% share of the skin whitening market in India.
“Over eight in ten people (83%) think that using the word ‘normal’ on beauty product packaging and in advertising has a negative impact on people. This includes making people who don’t feel as though they have ‘normal hair’ or ‘normal skin’ feel excluded or feel bad about themselves,” Unilever said it found as part of the survey.
In their survey of people in India, 63% said they will not buy a product if they do not agree with the company’s vision of diversity and inclusion, even if the company offers the best price, Unilever said.
President of Beauty and Personal Care at Unilever, Sunny Jain, said: “With one billion people using our beauty and personal care products every day, and even more seeing our advertising, our brands have the power to make a real difference to people’s lives.”
“We know that removing ‘normal’ from our products and packaging will not fix the problem alone, but it is an important step forward. It’s just one of a number of actions we are taking as part of our ‘Positive Beauty’ vision, which aims not only to do less harm, but more good for both people and the planet,” he added.