Talk is cheap. Putting your money where your mouth is is a monumental step for many corporations and this week the international brand Johnson & Johnson has vowed to remove skin-lightening products from Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Amid protests over the systematic mistreatment of African-Americans in the United States, many brands have had to take a long hard look in the mirror as consumers demand that products become more inclusive. If Johnson & Johnson will support the Black Lives Matter movement, then they will have to acknowledge their colorist products are no longer acceptable—at home or abroad. Clean & Clear Fairness and Neutrogena Fine Fairness lines will stay on shelves in India, Asia, and the MENA region until the stock has run out but they will no longer be part of the J&J portfolio.
The colorist implications of these bleaching products are damaging as women all over the world have long been fed the Eurocentric advertising message that “fair is better.” According to the Euromonitor International over 6,000 tones of skin-lighteners were sold last year alone. Not only are these products dangerous to use (they have been linked to blood poisoning and cancer) but they send an even more dangerous message about what skin color is worthy and what skin color needs to be fixed. Countries including Ghana, Japan, Australia, and Rwanda have already banned bleaching products in an attempt to keep citizens safe.
Johnson & Johnson is taking a big step in the right direction and in doing so are sending a strong message to customers and other brands; the skin-lightening industry is fast-growing and estimated to be worth over $30 billion by 2024 according to the WHO. In a statement regarding this decision, executives said, “Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names or claims on our Neutrogena and Clean & Clear dark-spot reducer products represent fairness or white as better than your own unique skin tone,” the company said in a statement. “This was never our intention — healthy skin is beautiful skin.”