LMAO! It's an Indian commercial right? I'm not surprised. Indians worship fair skin.

Wow! That's so sad. And to top it off, there isn't that much of a difference in their skin tones.

@Michelle- I was thinking the same thing.

The sad thing is, I like the way the commerical was shot but the product-no thanks.

not all indians are narcasistic a-holes that wanna be white
…just thought I'd add that because I am repulsed by this ad and I happen to be Indian.

#1 Those women are already light skin.

#2 Indians can't admit that they are black. They worship white skin and will kill themselves to get it. A woman killed herself because her husband called her black. I am not kidding either.

#3 They were colonized by the British and because of this cast system, they were able to keep the darker Indians suppressed. No different than in the U.S. and South AMerica. This same mentality is prominent in Central and OSuth America to this day. People who are visibly light skin Africans consider themselves white in places like Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Columbia..

#4 Mexico is as bad or worst. There were almost 1 million Mexican slaves that blended into Mexican society. Darker Mexicans are treated like garbage and the TV stars are all blond with blue eyes whether naturally or with help.

These problems will persist with low selfesteem and this need to be white will prevail because when someone sees that black people are considered below human, who would have pride in that?

But if only they knew the truth and understood their history - Perhaps they would feel better about themselves.
It is beyond sad..

That is sad, but I saw a commercial similar to this on youtube a few months back so I'm not too surprised. BTW, this commercial is the exact same commercial that was aired last year in Taiwan.

oops, I meant to say that the plot for the commercial you have up now was the same as another that was broadcast in Taiwan

Dang, if that is considered dark skin, I must be a tar baby.

Has no one commented about the opposite occurring here? Americans have an obsession with tanning. At least lightening their skin won't kill them.

wow this is sad…..
people of color dark or light are gorgeous to me.

i am a light complexion african american woman and i have (while growing up)been teased for being light,,i was called "white girl". i was so embarrassed and hurt. everybody in my family comes in so many differenct complexions (i can't spell!)so growing up i was buggin when people called me names!
my brother is attracted to dark skin women and i am attracted to dark skin men. all light men remind me of my big head freakle face brother!!
ha ha ha ha!

holla

Damn. BOYCOTT POND'S!!!!

What an interesting debate.

India is a land steeped in ancient mysticism, and great civilizations, but the color caste sytem there is just bananas. I personally find darker skinned indians incredibly beautiful, with such gorgeous skin tones and hair.

That commerical made me cringe.

I'm not surprised by the preference for light skin in Indian culture (I've seen the 'light is right' phenomenom in African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic American cultures)
But what took my breath away is how BLATANT the preference is in the commercial! It's not trying to say its for 'skin evening' or 'spot remover'! Oh no, its so you can get white skin and get a man!

It's like a blast from the past - where I've seen ads from the 20s and 30s telling Blacks they needed to lighten up in order to improve the race.
The only way to at least curb the impulse is to start a "Indian Brown is Beautiful' movement. Until that period happens, than yeah, we will continue to see ads like this.

Yawn.

I'm fairly sure the caste system preceded colonization.

Wow…just wow

Yes Daria, the caste system had been entrenched in indian culture for centuries before british colonization, but that colonization only deepended feelings of inferiority….something the british raj was more than happy to go along with.

This commercial is NOT any worse than the western obsession with changing the color of your hair or eyes. Women in America spend billions of dollars a year to turn dark hair blonde or brown and brown eyes blue or green.

I am a natural blonde with green eyes and live in New York City where I see thousands of people every day and less than one tenth of one percent of New Yorkers are true natural blondes. But every other woman is obsessed with becoming one.

In response to all the posts blaming the British for the Indian obsession with race it preceded the British by thousands of years because the Aryans settled India from the north several millenia after the Dravidians settled the south and they met in the middle and were invaded by oher lighter races long before the British.

Besides every other person in Britain today is black or indian so they are all getting their revenge on merry old england.

This was on Racialicious a while back and I am still saddened reading this a second time… *huddles self in corner and weeps*

Also….

@ No. 11 · Pop Shit - I second that motion.

By the way, I love the hypocrisy that this is made by the big FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) brand Unilever… The same people who made the 'Real Beauty' campaign, pretending they give a crap about encouraging women to be themselves and 'love the skin they're in?

So backward and Unilever should be ashamed with a phoney beauty marketing campaign in one country and selling a skin lightening cream call *sigh* 'White Beauty', in another.

Ok, I'm off point with this one, but is anyone besides me offended at the sexism of the ad? The offensive nature of the colorism goes without saying, but we have a portrayal of a woman so dim that when a superficial man leaves her because she's supposedly darker than the new woman, SHE WANTS HIM BACK! Can we talk about empowerment here? Kick his azz to the curb!

Sorry tony the tiger, but changing your hair color does not rise to the level of changing your skin tone, nor does it have the same racial component. This commercial would NEVER be shown in the U.S because of the outrageous self loathing it promotes.

Like I said, the color caste sytem in India was formly in place for centuries, but to deny the british impact in further solidifying it in modern India is just naive.

Where are you getting your numbers from? Every other brit is not black or indian. Granted there is a large immigrant poulation in London, but there numbers as large across the UK.

I'm North Indian (Aryan) and it makes me want to vomit.

I often wish that I am Tamil (South Indian), Tamils are wayyyy gorgeous and have beautiful dark skin.

F–k Priyanka Chopra, Saif Ali Khan and Neha Dhupia. I think that their movies should be boycotted. I'd love to confront them and call them a bunch of whitey wannabe sell-out traitors.

I am so ashamed to be Indian.

Very sad but its true. The people in power (employers, schools etc) give preference to lighter skinned people because it is considered beutiful. What would you do if you were them? Beutifull people get all the breaks in life, jobs raises, etc. here in the US.

imagine what it is like in poorer countries where you can't do anything about discrimination. I find it sad but I understand why people would do it(buying into the aryan beuty ) It won't change unless influential people stop propagating this notion.

This topic… Why you even feel concerned by an INDIAN commercial targeting woman who wants to have a whiter skin? Wait. I know. Well:

1)All asians societies are inclined to value WOMEN with the lightest skin color. I wonder why they don't care that much about men's skin color.

2)Hummm… people of african origins do the same. I guess that's why you care.

I read that it used to be the opposite. People all over the world used to speak highly of very dark, flawless and hairless skins. I guess all those migrants from Europe (since Antiquity at least) and the race mixing changed this mentality. Indian people sure can thank Alexander and his armies for their current perception of skin colors… and of course nowadays eurocentric agressive yet cold "Pro-White" war (hence against "dark skins") is making sure that things don't change.

I need an edit section.

They have an asian one too. It's the same commercial except with Asians instead of Indians.

At the end it says it makes it seem like you can only have a true love story and be happy if you're lighter.

Personally, I don't even see that much of a difference between the the two women in the commercials.

Its sad when people hate themselves because that's all that means for people who get that cream or buy into the hype that light is better. Everyone is unique and every skin tone has its ugly and pretty people.

I say f!ck them and their commercial. I'm happy with my skin tone.

I'm south-asian/Indian/Pakistani whatever you wanna call it. I'm not ashamed to be south-asian but I am ashamed that we are perpetuating that STUPIDITY of one perception of beauty and not being outraged as a group of people of the self-loathing that commercial is perpetuating. It makes me very sad and lets me know we have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. However, I'm going to do what I can to not perpetuate this travesty.

@#5
The country in South America is spelled ColOmbia.