L'Oréal removes words like “whitening” or “lightening” from its products

A building of the L'Oréal cosmetics group, in Levallois-Perret, near Paris, on February 7, 2020. REUTERS / Gonzalo Fuentes

Text by: Aabla Jounaïdi Follow

The French cosmetics giant l'Oréal announced Saturday, June 27, to change its strategy and modify the designation of its products in the face of anti-fascist demonstrations around the world. After Neutrogena and Unilever, there is no longer any question for the group of praising the merits of “whitening” creams or which praise whiteness as an ideal of beauty.

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L'Oréal decides to remove the words "  white  ", "  whitening  " and "  clear  " from its products intended to standardize the skin, some of which have been very successful in Africa, Asia and among the black and mestizo communities . For the time being, the group has said nothing about a possible withdrawal of products from the market, as did some of its competitors .

According to Béatrice Collin, professor of strategy and specialist in the group, it was necessary for L'Oréal to break with a certain ambiguity  : “  L'Oréal has for several years really tried to promote the diversity of all beauties - we see that especially in the choice of their muses. We really have this feeling that L'Oréal suddenly realized that there was a paradoxical situation between its products on the one hand and its positioning on diversity on the other. The beauty market is one of the most sensitive to social networks and it is really strategic. In my opinion, that is why we had such a quick and abrupt decision . "

On social networks, the news received a mixed reception: between those who believe that whiteness is found in turn decried - and call for a boycott of the brand - and those who deem the decision purely "cosmetic" ...

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