Giving Fairness Creams a Fair Shake/Post in Adage.com - Global Idea Network/28.10.08

How the Messaging Surrounding the Controversial Product Has Evolved

Women's fairness creams -- which work to lighten skin color -- is a large product category in India and has from time to time attracted the attention of feminists as being a regressive offering that perpetuates fair skin as an yardstick of beauty, a symptom of our "colonial hangover." Over the years, the promise of these creams has moved from you can find a husband if you are fair to the idea that a lighter skin tone will get you a job. Progressively, ads have shown women having the upper hand in choosing partners, and the jobs they can get have moved from air hostesses (traditionally a "modern" profession according to the large Indian middle class) to cricket commentators, reflecting a more recent male bastion that the Indian woman has stormed! Meanwhile, realizing that a fair (pun unintended!) percentage of users were men, the market has seen the launch of new brands of fairness creams for men, like Fair & Handsome. Lowe's latest ad for Unilever's Fair & Lovely, the largest brand in the women's fairness creams category, has moved the needle further. The story revolves around a man who is pushed to extreme measures to get his bulging waistline into shape because of the effect the woman has on him, with the tagline "The power of beauty." Surely, a telling comment on the changing status of women in Indian society. From "I'm worried about whether the man will accept me" to "See what an effect I have on the man." You really have come a long way, baby!

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http://http//adage.com/globalideanetwork/post?article_id=132070

Indian Women to Get Tools to Break Glass Ceiling/Post in Adage.com - Global Idea Network/15.10.08

New Program Trains Unskilled Indian Women in Trades

From breaking the glass ceiling in boardrooms to using micro-finance at the grassroots and driving rural entrepreneurship, from working night shifts in BPOs to teaching foreign children online from home, from biking in the Himalayas to being employed by banks to recover loans from defaulters, Indian women are breaking into so many male bastions -- even as the better-off spend more and more on looking more beautiful and showing more skin! Here is a small news item in The Hindu dated Oct. 13 that made me salute the gender, one more time. Take a look. They are now being trained by the Building Association of India in electrical work, painting, carpentry, plumbing. Said M.K. Sundaram, chairman of the Builders Association of India: "The women have been deprived of the opportunity to effectively contribute to the industry. As they are unskilled, they get low wages. This initiative of providing training in painting, plumbing, electrical and carpentry work for women unskilled laborers will help them earn more. It will also contribute well to the construction industry." May the idea spread. This is not just a positive step forward from women carrying heavy loads in construction sites. Maybe our problems with the slippery tribe of male household maintenance jobbers will come to an end!
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http://http//adage.com/globalideanetwork/post?article_id=131743