Pond's White Beauty

One of the hardest things to know how to feel about as a Westerner in India is the persistent advertisement (and presumed use, by women) of complexion-lightening cosmetic products. As a more symbolically-laden correlate to the use of fake tanners by some white people, it's yet another example of how values and appearances get reflected, refracted, and transmuted in the disparate shards of globalized culture.

Pond's White Beauty is one such product, manufactured and distributed by Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch multinational and one of the biggest companies in the world. Check out this randomly captivating (if seriously problematic) series of ads for White Beauty that went sometime last year, preserved for posterity thanks to YouTube and starring Bollywood big-shots Priyanka Chopra, Neha Dhupia and Saif Ali Khan:






I'm fairly certain most of my (white, Western) readers would agree that, ironically enough, Priyanka looks better at the beginning of the seven days. This sentiment is evident, among others, within the astounding cacophony of YouTube user comments on these videos. To pick just one example:

rotaka (5 months ago) 
"Priyanka should never change her skin color. That is one of the things that make her so beautiful."

One of the great things about YouTube comment boards is that they condense and showcase how truly divergent cultural perspectives can be, even as they converge on this one highly specific spot in cyberspace. Alongside each other, in mind-blowingly incoherent juxtaposition, one can read countless points of view, each with a different sense for the ad's context:

randomlimon2324 (2 months ago) 
wow this can be a movie 
now, going on to see part 5!

cambrasmacho (2 months ago)
racists bastards!

fortheloveofalia (4 months ago)  
i love saif ali khan
and obiously love ponds

A few more examples, less juxtaposed but no less dissonant, or poignant:

malletdiva02 (9 months ago) 
"I am so glad at the comments that the people are making on the board that are against this rubbish. Beauty comes in all shades"
...
Diamond5Girl (4 months ago)
"did this creme help for anyone who are using it?"
...
ranj22288 (3 months ago)
"Can't even understand why he's with Neha if she's this bossy!"
...
Hemps (4 months ago)
"whoooooa wtf, creepy. lol."
...
SDCABSEE (6 months ago)
"WHITE BEUATY! 
I am not against this product , but they also should have another version BLACK BEAUTY that would make your skin become darker and darker, because I beleive there´s people that want to get darker if there is people who wants get a lighter skin in this world."

Comments like this last one, which seek to compare darkening products like fake tanners to lightening products like White Beauty -- and thereby rationalize the use of the latter under a kind of 'grass is greener' folk ontology -- are fairly common. Expressed effectively by hansel22, it's a position worth meditating on...

hansel22 (5 months ago)
and whites want to be tanned. whats the problem? 

...though in the end it seems to lack a full sense for what's at stake here.

Some comments, most probably authored by Westerners or diasporic Indians, condemn the company and the actors for propounding some sort of racism, but tend to ignore the situational considerations (not to mention the systematic biases) that would lead someone, whether in India or abroad, to use White Beauty. Troublingly enough, these comments seem to perpetuate the exact racialized power dynamic that Indian women (and maybe men?), in purchasing and using products like White Beauty, are trying to work around. (This is to gloss over entirely the ad's commentary -- echoed to a degree in the comments -- regarding the treatment of women as objects, and focus instead on the race-related discourses operating within.) Check these:

brokeNCDYEluverxD (1 month ago)
"I'm Indian, and I dont get why indians want to be white?!? seriously this is stupid. It just makes me hate my culture even more."
...
AltaicSupremacy (2 weeks ago)
"Oh wow, a product for whitening skin, oh boy. I can't wait to replace my beautiful tanned, melanin filled skin for pasty, albino-lite skin, whoopee! I laugh at the people who buy this, only people from an inferior culture/race would buy these products"
...
Moriysz (9 months ago)
"Everyone wants to be like the whiteman. Stupid people. Thats why his ass is going into captivity." (?!)
...
nevers6 (1 month ago)
"isn't it part of Indian cultural history that the lighter-skinned Indians are in the higher caste? 
pretty fucking disgusting. and the worst thing is that Hinduism suggests that people are where they DESERVE to be because of past lives, so the poorer, darker ones EARNED their lower place, and if anyone tries to marry up, they can be killed for it. Real peaceful, tolerant religion there..."
...
madmaxrj (3 months ago)
Freake Indians.... Rubish People !!!!!!!!!!!

User comments of a delightfully distinct vein, presumably authored by Indians or other Bollywood enthusiasts, aptly demonstrate how completely different meanings can be constructed from the same cultural artifact. The comments I have in mind center mostly on the desire to see Priyanka and Saif together in a movie, and soon:

bollywoodfan23 (10 months ago)
"do u know when the next one [ad in the series] is cuming out"
...
nooriuk786 (4 months ago)
"omg i luv it i want dem in a film togeatha"
...
randomlimon2324 (2 months ago)
"wooow this should really be made into a movie 
i want a necklace like that
oooohhhh and its magnetic!" (ironic?)
...
kashaami (3 months ago)
"priyanka and saif should do a movie together:)"

There is an East Asian analogue to this series which can be found here but is somehow less compelling (sound editing?). In this sister ad's regime of meaning, Pond's Flawless White -- a presumably related product -- is cast, even more explicitly and whackly, as "love's helping hand."

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posted by Alex Cref at 8:51 pm




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