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R U Fooled in haircare matters / products ? |
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Allopathy / Major Medical Therapies have no easy cure for Hairloss or Dandruff ! |
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Reflect: Shameless Personal Care companies shortchange the Public with atrocious lies and undesirable Mirages |
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Constructive care Tips for the Top: Destructive Fictions rufooled: Haircare Site map 2 Spicy shots hit list |
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Unleashing the Power of Swapna - Making it Free Swapna Cocolite |
| Fair & Lovely |
| The Supreme Court of India had ruled that | ||
| " the object is to bring honesty and truth in the relationship between the manufacturer and the consumer" and held that " if the general impression conveyed is false, the most punctilious and scrupulous accuracy in immaterial minutiae will not render the representations true." [in simple terms, a lie is a lie, however decorated or whoever says it] | ||
| Fair & Lovely Fairness Cream of Hindustan Unilever | ||
| This page limits itself to a scathing attack on the so called shabby and shameless Market Survey done by Unilever for Fair & Lovely Cream and the deliberate, distorted messages blared by them on TV and other print media to fool the Public | ||
| fairness creams |
Fairness Cream is a criminal joke on the public is what I say elsewhere in this
site. Refer fairness
creams. The functionality / efficacy is cheap - refer the end of the page for a Medical view Just for fun, think / imagine, an Indian, with a White / European skin and a normal wheatish / brown body - such a comic looking person would have become a rarity and would be in news, with TV channels inventing every one hour some 'breaking news' to break the monotony of the stale news and retaining TRP. Despite 30 long years, Lever has not produced the proof even remotely Please do not assume that other Fairness Cream peddlers are angels. Save your money in the prevailing world wide financial crisis started by reckless financial institutions in America |
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| My answer to the empty rhetoric question of Lever | ||
Question: 'Guess which leading International Cream is rated the best by Consumers in India' ? |
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Answer: As almost all are cheap, unethical gimmicks, there is really none |
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| Major benefit ! | The product does not deliver the results it loudmouths. Hence it is not a value for money product. Fair & Lovely can be compared to an exquisite and beautiful mannequin. If probed, it is just a near zero value Plaster of Paris. Why buy it at all ? | |
| Side effects | Laughter Challenge - Star One TV
- 23-12-2008 The model in Fair & Lovely advertisement only utters the word 'Hai'. From that, I only infer that the side effect of the product could be 'dumbness' ! I hope she can speak and dispel my doubts |
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| Expose | I am exposing Hindustan Unilever, with their own words and actions, in this page. As Lever spends more on TV, they catch my attention. Let us not assume that the others in this game are angels |
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| Look who is talking ? Self Certified Truth Sayer or a crafty, company duping the public ? | ||
| 1993 | 19-5-93
to 1-6-93 Business
World : page 57
Caught in Camera:
".... even Lever's own Pears had high alkaline content". And that was in front of the Press, called by Lever to promote Dove. Has Lever changed and started speaking the Total Truth ? No |
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| 1998 | Colgate and Lever: The fight between them shows that both are liars. Refer Toilet Soaps | |
| 2004 | Anti Marks: The Fair & Lovely anti marks December 16, 2004 advertisement was packed with semi truths and lies. Lever attempted a distorted smear campaign for Anti Marks Cream, projecting themselves as Honest Truth Sayers and then beat a hasty retreat ? Why retreat if you are speaking the Truth ? The advertisement was withdrawn - you did not speak the truth as claimed, is it ? | |
| 2008 | July 2008: 'Total truth': You and I did not choose the
site name. Lever did. Total Truth means total truth and not 99% Truth and 1% Lies |
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Does a Leopard change its spots ? No |
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The 4 instances from 1993 to 2008 is indicative of the level of Truth and Public concern |
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The past practices of Lever gives no basis for an assumption that it would be different now |
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Do you trust a proven liar, habitual offender or jailbird ? |
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| Unwarranted Self certification ! | ||
| In a populous country like India
100 Crores can speak. Lever self certifies itself to be a truth sayer. Look at the
name of the website ..'please visit www.totaltruth.in'
'....That is what the wrapper says. Fine. No problem if they
say the Truth. If 10 drops of Gutter Water is mixed with 100 ml of pure water, that is 0.5%, it is impure water. Let us be clear about that. Even if one word is false / questionable, the integrity of Lever and the product, Fair & Lovely, becomes questionable. |
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| Fair & Lovely / Hindustan Unilever | ||
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Hindustan Unilever is an inveterate,
cheap liar, using all unfair means to dupe the Public,
flaunting shamelessly despicable ethical standards.
The disgusting reality is that all these liars, like Politicians, loaf about in
public, without any sign of punishment. Please bear in mind that a traffic policeman cannot catch all the offenders. |
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| Proof for criticisms | This page will prove the above blunt statement and also expose the questionable product claim / sham market survey of Fair & Lovely - using Lever's own printed 'Msg in carton' and 'Msg in Parcel' | |
| Sham Survey: Proofs for Duping the Public | ||
| Msg in carton: | The 25 gms Fair & Lovely tube is packed in a cardboard carton, with Printed Messages on all the 6 sides. This public statement of Lever is mentioned hereafter in this page as 'Msg in carton' | |
| Message Msg in Parcel: |
Hindustan Lever has got conducted a sham Market Survey in Mumbai, for Fair &
Lovely in
March 2008. They neither probed or tried to prove conclusively anything with
the survey. And they misused the subjective, meagre
survey results to draw some unsupported and
unwarranted inferences to promote the product. Lever
has sent 25gms tube of Fair & Lovely free, to randomly selected females, in an
attractively packaged parcel through Courier. The parcel was collected by me on 10-7-2008
- unlucky !. My daughter says that she never contacted
Lever. Lever has printed some messages on the the top side of the parcel as well as on the specially pasted, extra outer flap. Msg in Parcel refer to the printed messages from this packaged parcel |
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| 5 sections more for the absolute shocker ! background information before the blast | ||
Is Fair & Lovely, an ineffective Product ? |
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| Msg in carton | At the outset, the Label gives the game away! Fair & Lovely is the caption at the top of the tube. 'multivitamin' is the prominent bold caption in the middle. The name, Total Fairness Cream is at the bottom of the tube and is in normal font. The shift is significant and raises doubts | |
| Msg in carton | Usage instructions: Gently massage a generous quantity of the cream on your face and neck twice daily. Use in combination with other products of the range for Total Fairness - Face wash, Night Cream, Sunblock Lotion, Winter Cream and Home facial kit are the other products in the range, as specified on the carton. | |
It is not an use alone product. Got that ? |
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| Diluted Product ? | For Fairness, it needs additional props. The carton say that. The major claim is diluted and undermined, not by you or I but by the makers of Fair & Lovely. No need to go into other points very minutely, if you have already got the message | |
| One is a Bluff | 15th August 2008: Lever's advertisement, perhaps in NDTV Imagine: Fair & Lovely is to be used for 4 weeks to become Fair and one can measure it by the Fairness Metre that they Supply. Does not this advertisement contradicts the message in the carton mentioned above - One is a deliberate bluff ? | |
| Presenting incorrect / contradicting facts - One Bluff or misguidance with facts - total truth in doubt ? | ||
| Msg in carton | New Fair & Lovely Multivitamin cream is enriched with a revolutionary Biovita complex - a combination of Vitamin B3, B6, C and E. See the results from its unique step-by-step process as fairness qualities build up week after week on your skin. | |
| Msg in carton | Vitamins: Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate [ provitamin C ], Tocopheryl Acetate [ Provitamin E ] and Pyridoxine hydrochloride [ provitamin B6 ] are used as per listed ingredients in the product. | |
| Provitamin is precursor to
Vitamin and is not a Vitamin. Biovita mentions of Vitamins but actually Pro Vitamins are used as per ingredients named |
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Even if functionality is assumed to be the same or nearly same, why use a wrong term ? |
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| Pro V
Shampoo? New Doubt ! |
Lever rushed to claim that their Clinic Shampoo contains Pro V from 1991 onwards, before P & G settled down to introduce Head & Shoulders in 1992 or so - preempting a competitor, bigger than Lever, Worldwide as per my recollection of 2001 Sales figures. Has Lever changed the Pro V in Clinic to the Present Biovita Pro V ? If not, why not ? |
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| No Market Proof / Public figures to infer 'impact' of the product for 30 long years | ||
| Market view |
Fair & Lovely is in Indian Market since 1978. That is 30 years. If even a million packets were sold per year, in these 30 years, nearly 30 Million Indians should be White / Fair ? Seeing the impact, others would have rushed to Lever by 1980 and become Fair. Who gained ? Perhaps none ! So Lever manufactures fresh bluffs to sell more of an ineffective product |
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| Employees | Mr. Sundaram, Vice Chairman, HUL: He came on CNBC TV 18 on Friday, 24th October, to announce the 2nd Quarter results. He is black like a normal Tamilian. One of my seniors at IIM, Ahmedabad, left HUL to join Arvind Group. I saw him in 1993 after 25 years - he passed out in 1968. His colour had not changed even a fraction - leave alone 1 and 2 notches in a month that Lever advertises | |
| Common Sense Plus - CSP | 1 minute Clincher: Did any Indian prevent Hindustan Unilever in all these years from making a Fairness Soap so that Indians can become whiter. They do not yet make any such soap ! Why ? If the face can be whitened, so can the body. If not, not even the face. | |
| Survey is a Sham - questionable validity | ||
| Msg in Parcel | ..'4 leading international creams
selling the Indian market were rated by consumers in the study. To remove any
bias, an independent laboratory based in Mumbai purchased all these creams from
the market, and transferred the contents into unbranded white jars. Each cream
was given unique code by the lab. The lab sent these samples to the field
offices of a leading international market research firm.
These field personnel gave each of these 4 creams to 200 Randomly selected female consumers selected from across socio economic groups and between the age of 18-40 years'..... |
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| sample size |
India is a country with 100 Crores plus Population. It must be above 20 Crores for the above age group. So, sample size of 200 is insignificant and statistically invalid. To extrapolate that results to the whole of the population is an exercise an imagination | |
| They chose to do that so clumsily, after 30 years, raises further doubts. Why they did not do it in the last 25 years and or with a large sample even now, is not clear. Is there something suspect ? | ||
| Sample size is also contradicted 'deliberately confusing the public' | ||
| Msg in Parcel | The next paragraph says...'The study was conducted with 800 female consumers across socio economic groups, in the age group 18-40 yrs in India. The study was conducted in March 2008' | |
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Is it 200 or 800 ? A self professed total truth Sayer starts with a lie / wrong statement ! |
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Now to the shocking and despicable standard of Hindustan Unilever |
They do not even remotely test 'Fairness Impact'. They are short changing the Public. |
Recheck below the features that they claim to have checked ! It is unfair |
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| Msg in Parcel |
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| some decimal points could be close approximations from the histograms, if not stated by Lever | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You are Duped ! |
And they are providing to the public / buyers of Fair & Lovely, fairness meter. Can we trust them ? |
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| Impact of Fair & Lovely / Product Test - They are joking at your cost and Time ! | ||
| Msg in Parcel | 'Each consumer used the cream placed with her for a period of 10 days. After 10 days, the field research personnel asked the product rating on a set of predefined parameters. These parameters included overall ones, as well as specific skincare attributes' | |
| msg in carton | The Final Result: Total Fairness. week 1- Fresh feel, Sun Protected bright look; week 2 - Soft and Smooth Glowing skin: week 3 - even toned radiance | |
Do you spot the cheap joke ? |
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| msg in carton | There is contradiction between
the 2 sources of printed messages. The usage details in the carton mentions of
likely benefits with 3 weeks use of the product - with others, if you
read it What can an user get in 10 days / One and Half weeks is not clear. Even the sham test should have been for a week or 2 and certainly not 10 days. It is a very innovative blunder. To my line of thinking, there is no honesty and ethics at all. The Presentation does not seem to be worded to aid in decision making. Instead it lacks clarity and confuses the public / buyer - is it not a form of cheating ? They take the public for a ride brazenly |
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| safety ? | Are 10 days, sufficient to assess the safety and suitability ? Does it mean that a product which makes the skin fair / lighter in colour is more effective ? Perhaps in December 1996, Hindustan Lever / New Organics shampoo, hosted a Beauty Parlour owners meet. It was inaugurated by Ms Mrinilini Sarabhai. [ I wrote a letter to her against lending her name / presence to questionable products - refer below ] There were stalls / counters to sell products to the public. I watched with dismay and shock, one company person applying a Fairness Cream on 25 years old lady's hand and demonstrating the 'fairness effect' in about 3 minutes. Bleaching agents can do that too |
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| White wash Simple fairness cream |
About 5% Titantium Dioxide is used
in the Cream. And it is the strongest white pigment - over 5 times stronger
than lime white wash, as per my recollection.
Will not Titanium give whiteness ? Make a water washable dilute white paint. Garnish it with Vitamins and what have you. Spice it with Medical Terms. Shout from the Roof Top like Viru did in Sholay. Some will buy first, as you can note in any roadside show. Others will follow. Simple, is it not ? |
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| Skewed Presentation - deliberately misleading ! | ||
| Products | ..'The 4 leading international creams included Fair & Lovely Multivitamin Total Fairness cream, Loreal Relightening Whitening Moisturising Day cream SPF 15, Olay Total Effects cream Normal SPF 15 and Olay White Radiance Day Cream SPF 24'... Are they | |
| Results | Refer to the table above for assessment figures on the 4 parameters. There is only marginal difference between one product and another in each parameter and in the overall opinion | |
| Misleading Msg in Parcel |
The Histograms / pictorial rectangles for Fair & Lovely is presented in a steep slanting angle. The picture would show that Fair & Lovely is rated 50% better than other creams by the users, whereas the above figures confirm that the difference is just marginal. That is deliberate and intentional misguidance | |
| conclusion unbridled imagination no support |
Average consumer panel rating on
some of the key parameters of beautiful skin where Fair & Lovely was rated
superior 99 out of 100 * times are shown below
* Interpretation of superiority at 99% significance of Fair & Lovely Multivitamin compared to leading international creams on overall opinion ....Interpretation methodology is not made clear. As the results do not show anything spectacular to me about Fair & Lovely, I think the interpretation is whimsical |
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| 'for complete explanations and results on all cream,.........'please visit www.totaltruth.in' '.... | ||
| Is there any need ? Lever and Colgate are shameless liars, if you refer to Unfair practices | ||
| Comparative analysis - even that is a lie | ||
| Msg in Parcel: |
..'conducted in March 2008: These field
personnel gave each of these 4 creams to 200 Randomly'.. If 200 persons were to use 4 creams, one after another, with a gap of 10 to 15 days, between one product and another, it would take 80 plus days. And the survey was conducted in March / 31 days and not concluded in March 2008. That is too short a period to assess anything much if each of these 4 creams were given 200 randomly and is meant 800 people, it is not a comparative analysis by them as different people have used different samples |
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Other flaws / other views, if you wish to know |
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| Duping the Public - deliberate misinterpretations / misguidance / distortions / lies | ||
| Msg in Parcel | Neither Lever nor the Agency which conducted the Survey wanted any convenient or inconvenient answers about Fairness - they chose to avoid the issue of Fairness, even before the start. Why ? | |
| Every week, there is some benefit ?. The benefit gained in the first week is not stated to be wiped off in the second or third week. Fresh feel, Sun Protected bright look that one gets in the first week itself, should get reinforced in 2nd, 3rd, 4th...10 week, nth week | ||
| Google results on 25-6-2008 at 1835 hours for Fair and Lovely | ||
| The Hindustan Lever
Research Centre (it is among the largest research establishments in India's
private sector, including pharmaceutical companies, ... www.hul.co.in/brands/fairnlovely.asp
- 36k
Given this background, not trying to establish the product / claim scientifically, means that the product is basically weak. In Google or Yahoo search results, you can also find a link to another site critical of Fairness creams. That site by perhaps a Doctor / scientist mentions about the misuse of hydroquinone, the skin lightening material, side effects and long term safety |
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| Special comments: based on details just collected from browsing the net and needs editing / integration | ||
| All details / quotes below are from an article by a Michigan University Professor | ||
| efficacy | Fair & Lovely is not a pharmaceutical product: HUL has not been required to prove efficacy ! | |
| A Doctor's view | Dr R K Pandhi, head, Department of Dermatology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, says that he "has never come across a medical study that substantiated such claims [of whitening] - | |
| safety | "Actually, these are drugs that are sold as cosmetics, to avoid legal control." - view of Anil Gangoo, president of Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists | |
| C.K. Prahalad |
He seems to have concurred with HUL's contention that "choice and economic empowerment for women" and that it is a product that is targeted at those at the "bottom of the pyramid". The justification of 'economic empowerment' does not seem logical. Say, if a poor person is fed for a day in a 5 star Hotel, does it empower / elevate him ? What about the next meal ? | |
| skewed vision | Orators / men in positions of either influence, authority, power or all, get marooned in their own islands and suffer conclave vision - as most others keep mum, as usual or by practice to be herds | |
| The Counter | I wish
that he had the guts to test out the product on himself [ he is a brownie ] and
then certified it or asked Lever, whether
they have collected any such proof of whitening. He does not seem to have done
any such thing. And if he is a Director, he has the means
/ right to seek such a detail. Instead he loudmouths a hyperbolic meaningless statement. Pinching the limited income of people at the bottom of the pyramid with a non functional / questionable product is disgusting cheapness. I recollect the guts of a friend of mine, who is also a Professor in America, who threw away the Directorship of a family owned group, when an act of theirs clashed with ethical Corporate Governance. In IIMA parlance, Prahalad gabs a lot - practicse I am yet to see |
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| Sections |
Links for different sections or pages |
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| Swapna Hair Enricher | The Hair Saver for Hairloss and Dandruff: Hair Growth I Photo Proofs Invention indian supply | |
| Haircare Guides | Book chapters - Tips for the Top hairsense Notes rufooled hairfaq links Site map 2 | |
| Other sections | Technology Transfer: Swapna Cocolite: Spicy shots: hit list sitemap 3: site map Contact | |
| Errors and Omissions exempted. If there be any unwanted oversights, mistake in content or suggestions for improvements, please e mail us | ||
| Last Modified: Dec 26, 2008: Personal website of R. Ranganathan M.Sc., [ MBA - IIMA] | ||