Fruc this
A division of cosmetics company L’Oréal has been fined 30K euros for hiring only white salespeople:
Garnier France sought saleswomen to demonstrate the shampoo line Fructis Style in supermarkets… In July 2000, a fax detailing the profile of hostesses sought by L’Oréal stipulated women should be 18 to 22, size 38-42 (UK size 10-14) and “BBR”, the initials for bleu, blanc, rouge, the colours of the French flag… BBR, a shorthand used by the far right, was also a well-known code among employers to mean “white”…
… her clients demanded white hostesses… a superior in her own company had said she had “had enough of Christine and her Arabs“… In a normal sample of women recruited for similar sales work, around 40% would be non-white. For the Fructis project, less than 4% were of “non-European” origin. [Link]
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Aishwarya Rai promotes L’Oréal |
Will a certain MBWITW drop her L’Oréal contract? Or is she actually doing the right thing for the colorstruck Indian market:
“Indians are still hung up on white skin… Even now advertisers believe products are endorsed better by foreign models.” … advertisers use foreign ads or ads featuring foreign models because Indians believe foreign products are better. [Link]
L’Oréal: Because You’re Worthless.
Related: Colorstruck Indian ads
on Monday, July 9th, 2007, 6:02 pm in Ads, Issues › 
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Thank you for posting this article. I doubt if Ash will cancel her contract. It is so sad to see this notion of ‘white is right’ in other cultures. Isn’t it enough to know the ‘group’ Indians try so hard to look like do not value or respect them to be beautiful as they are? I guess not.
I’m sure you are aware that African Americans went throught this too (some still are dealing with it) until the ‘black is beautiful’ campaign came about and turned some of the self hatred around. African Americans demanded beauty be shown in all shades. Does India have anyone (group) doing that? African Americans wrote about the beauty of all shades in literature and song. Does India have any song(s) that expresses the beauty of darker skinned people besides ‘gori, gori?’ I don’t think I have ever seen any children’s literature depicting Indians how they.
Where are the dark skinned role models? Dark skinned beauty role models? Do they exist in India?
My impression is there are more brown-skinned ramp models (Vidisha Pavate, Nethra Raghuraman) than Hindi or Tamil film actresses (Bipasha Basu). I haven’t heard of any brown-or-black-is-beautiful group in India.
Speaking of TMBWITW (a title I question every time I read it) do yourself a favor — avoid Mistress of Spices (the movie) at all costs. It is total, utter garbage — painful to watch and a waste of money. Himesh’s Aaapp KKaaa Suurrroorr (Ttheee Moviiiee) is Citizen Kane compared to the horrendous Mistress.
noyonika chatterjee (a model) has actually refused to do fairness cream ads for this reason, and she has talked about how she is rejected for modelling mainstream products - household appliances etc - because she isn’t fair enough. though manish is right that the fashion industry is more accepting of darker skin than the film industry. i think it has much to do with the different audiences to whom these industries cater.
kaushik - i hope you have learned your lesson - if all the movie has to offer is ash, it’s definitely not worth it….
I’d actually amend the statement. If the movie has Ash, it’s definitely not worth it. Ash to Dust! She is the female Gary Sinise.
Talking about dusky actresses in India, there are a lot of actresses like Kajol and Shilpa Shetty who began their career with a glowing, brown skin…..as time passed by, they went through a magical transformation!! Watch “Baazigar” first and then any of their recent movies, an you’ll know. Rekha, Madhuri Dixit-you name it, they’ve all been there!
Vidisha Pavate and Nethra Raghuraman are considered dark (or just brown)? Boy, India has a long way to go. I guess anyone beyond dusky can forget it for now, right?
all indians are brown. i know some don’t want to admit it. they prefer to think of themselves as white. however, we are differnent shades of brown, and clearly the lighter shades of brown are viewed as more attractive by indians. and clearly indian women are white-washing themselves to fit the european standard of beuaty. other than MIA and Parminder Nagra, there aren’t any real colored indians visible in american pop culture. it’s ridiculous. i think they have a moral obligation to maintain their skin color as well as their indian hips and breasts instead of lightening their skin and going to a size zero to fit the white standard of beauty.
but this same trend happened with other races — first the “whiter” looking ones are seen as beautiful, and then the mainstream of that race is integrated into the american standard of beauty. for example, first we had tyra banks and halle berry, and now we have alek wek and other dark african models. hopefully that will be the case here.
until indians ourselves can accept that we are BROWN and not white and we own it and are proud of it, how can we expect the West to do so?