Beauty and personal care company Unilever said on Tuesday that it would no longer use the word “normal” in its products and advertisements, after a study found that it makes most people feel left out.
London-based Unilever, which owns Dove, Ax, Sunsilk and Vaseline, among other personal care brands, also said it would not digitally alter the body shape, size and skin color of models in its advertising as part of Positive Beauty initiative, according to a press release. And the company promised to increase the number of ads with underrepresented people, without specifying which groups.
One objective of these and other stages, said Unilever, was “to better challenge the narrow ideals of beauty”.
The changes in advertising came after the company commissioned a study for 10,000 people in nine countries, including Brazil, China, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The study found that 56 percent of respondents thought that the beauty industry could make people feel left out, and that up to seven in 10 people agreed that the word “normal” in products and advertising had negative effects. That number increased to eight out of ten for people between 18 and 35 years old.
Seventy-four percent of respondents said they wanted the beauty industry to make them feel better, not just look better.
“We know that removing the ‘normal’ from our products and packaging will not solve the problem alone, but it is an important step forward,” said Sunny Jain, president of Unilever for beauty and personal care, in a statement. Mr. Jain added that the company is committed to combating harmful norms and stereotypes.
A spokeswoman for Unilever said on Tuesday that the company had more than 200 products that included the word “normal” on the label. According to her, the company had already started the withdrawal process, with the goal of being fully concluded by March 2022.
The changes were delayed and were “completely necessary” after the worldwide demonstrations of Black Lives Matter last year, said Ateh Jewel, a beauty journalist and member of the advisory board of the British Beauty Council, an organization representing the British beauty industry.
“Saying the word ‘normal’ has been used to differentiate it,” said Jewel. “I’m normal. My dark skin is normal. My juicy, curvy body from West Africa is normal. Everything about me is normal.”
Products that use the term “normal” can make a person feel anything, but, she said, adding that their use can be dangerous to a person’s self-esteem and mental health.
Unilever’s decision only “scratches the surface” about what needs to be done more broadly, Jewel said. She suggested that beauty companies should also focus their attention on recruiting more diverse candidates for positions on the board and in cosmetic labs.
Last summer, in response to international outrage over the death of George Floyd, institutional racism and police violence, Unilever was one of several domestic beauty companies that were quick to declare their opposition to racism. In June, Johnson & Johnson said it would stop selling skin lightening lotions, including Clean & Clear’s Neutrogena Fine Fairness and Clear Fairness. In the same month, L’Oreal also announced that it would stop using words like “whitening” in its products.
At the time, the company, formed in 1930 by merging Unie, a Dutch margarine manufacturer, and Lever Brothers, a British soap company, said it would remove the words “fair / fair, white / whitening and whitening / whitening” from product packaging and communications. The company has also pledged to change the name of its brand Fair & Lovely, a steamroller in India that for decades has marketed lighter skins as a path to happiness.
“Words are powerful and we are used to having this unconscious prejudice,” said Jewel. “He just washes over us. We don’t even understand what we are saying because we were fed racism ”.