How were fairness creams even a thing for this long?

From harmful toxins to the obvious colonial hangover, the product is problematic in every way and always has been.

Does changing the name of a fairness cream change its very essence? Does it cease to be a product that proposes to miraculously transform dark-skinned people into fair-skinned ones?

Does it stop building upon a colour complex that it has nurtured over decades: 'dark is beautiful and fair is not', 'dark is unwanted while fair leads to success'?

Unilever's longstanding hot-seller Fair and Lovely is finally getting rechristened to a more politically correct name. The word 'fair' is going to be replaced by an apt word associated with glowing, healthy skin.

According to the official press release issued by the brand, this change comes as a transition that was initiated last year, when the brand 'moved away from benefits of fairness, whitening and skin lightening, towards glow, even tone, skin clarity and radiance'.

In his quote, Amir Paracha, Chairman and CEO, Unilever Pakistan ltd, said, '...This ambition has been in the works for some time with significant steps such as the removal of the dual-faced cameo and shades guides from the packaging of Fair and Lovely in 2019...'

But what took Unilever so long to realize that it needed to change a name that was very obviously cashing in on colour complexes? And can a change in name really change the narrative that has been hauling in profits for the brand for many decades?

A Fair and Lovely Pakistan ad from last year emphasized on the word 'glow' rather than 'nikhar'. But the Urdu word 'nikhar' is translated to mean brightness and a glowing lustre. We're not going to get fooled by this politically correct wordplay. It's quite obvious that the cream is still promising to do what it has always done: make you white.

Following UniLever's decision, the L'Oreal group also announced that it will be removing words like 'whitening', 'fairness' and 'lightening' from its skin evening products, according to a report published in The Guardian.

It is, of course, obvious that these changes have come about following the #BlackLivesMatter movement, with the world agitating against colourism and racism and whitening creams getting heavily criticized for building color complexes.

These complexes, that privilege white over dark, have been prevalent all over the world for a very long time. Their roots can be traced back to colonial times, when the fair-skinned British ruled the world while the poor serfs who...