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Vaseline's Skin Whitening Facebook Application: What's Your Opinion?

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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Vaseline's Skin Whitening Facebook Application: What's Your Opinion?

I've only done one other 'news story' type article on my blog, and that was featuring the skin bleaching segment from the Tyra Banks Show.

I decided to do another one since I'm interested in other opinions on the topic. If you haven't heard, Vaseline has launched a Facebook Application that allows people to erase dark spots, acne marks and lighten the skin in people's photos. It is a marketing tool for their skin lightening line for men.

The ads that are running are stirring lots of controversy. They are urging men to use the products and facebook application to help them 'transform' their lives. It's an absolutley crazy concept!

In a way I understand the confusion and outrage, since I think all these fairness cream ads are horribly done and send the wrong message. But, in the same turn it is basically like a photoshop edit. It happens all the time in Hollywood.

What I find the most ridiculous is the people who actually use this particular application to apply/respond to employers (as the advertisements urge you to do O_o ). If you meet an employer or anybody off the internet in real life, they will obviously notice a clear difference between your photo and you in reality. It most likely won't have any bearing on your skills or whatever, but it just doesn't make sense to me. How far can an edited photo take you? And why...?

I wonder what everyone else's opinion of this is? Is this application not a big deal (similar to any altering from photoshop) or is it playing into racist stereotypes?

Personally I believe it's a bit of both.

And for people just stumbling on my blog, I will just provide you an article I wrote last year which outlines my view of skin lightening in general just in case you wanted to know:  A Little Rant About Skin Lightening


Here is a full article link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100715/hl_yblog_upshot/vaseline-ad-campaign-sparks-controversy-over-skin-whitening-creams

I highly encourage you to read it before stating your opinion.

Labels:

posted by Mileena at 2:39 PM

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am from India...what the blog say's is true to a large extent, it's NOT racism or white supremacy ,our society is color conscious atleast most of them are, we have several homemade/grandma recipes to lighten complexion since ages .

Unlike any other ethnicity, in India one can find ppl from dark to European fair this aspect renders hardship to gals who are brown..its very common for one to inquire about the complexion of a new born in india along with health ofcourse.

As the author mentioned dark complexion is definitely a liability in most of the cases chiefly for nuptials in India.The author also mentioned that featuring a rejected dark complexion gal over a fair gal in a advertisement is racist , honestly i don't know if it is racist but i sure know that it is a fact of our society.

I most emphatically don't blame Vaseline neither is it the West brainwashing , this is the outcome of an ignorant mindset of a society who consider being dark a social stigma.

Unilever is just cashing on this ignorance. It would be a financial windfall for an averagely successful whitening cream company in India.

Peace.

July 28, 2010 at 11:04 AM  
Blogger Mileena said...

Thank you so much for posting your comment. I agree with you completley. Unilever and many of these fairness cream companies are indeed cashing in on the ignorance. It's lucrative and easier for them to do it this way.

I think I speak for a lot of people in that it would be nice if these products were marketed in that they embrace all skin tones and don't perpetuate the light skin/dark skin stigma in society. Like you said, a person's (specifically a woman's) skin tone does play a role in her day to day life. These companies can dispel this ignorance by making advertisements that don't show people that a certain skin tone makes you 'better'. It's a slap in the face to people who do not even want to lighten.

July 28, 2010 at 1:09 PM  
Anonymous Randy said...

What is this thing about? being white is not all! Just this morning my friend said, "Eh, which one is whiter? You or me yeahh??"

Isnt that weird? i mean i dont lighten my skin to a point where i become a Chinese! mine is already fair so theres no connection. I always hate (indirectly) people who use excessive makeup--powder, oh my god. Powder? To make the skin look whiter? Ridiculous. We can see the difference just by looking at their overall complexion from toes to hair :D :D

I always see that with my own eyes in my daily life. Even theres a sentence, "Powder isnt just for your face, cover your neck too!! Hahahaha!!"

August 6, 2010 at 9:00 PM  
Blogger Mileena said...

I agree Randy, but everyone has a right to do whatever they want with their skin. My only concern is if it's done right - the safe way. Then there's no problem I have with it.

But I do agree with the makeup thing. It looks too much, lol. I'm glad you commented! It's been awhile since you did. <333

August 7, 2010 at 6:25 AM  

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