An Enlightening Development

Everyone has seen, at least once in their live, those advertisements on lotions and skin products promising soft, and luscious skin. Well, apparently there is a skin product that will not only do all of those things, but also make you look whiter? 
The actual ad that is being used throughout Western Africa

 Skin product giant Nivea has been receiving a lot of flack for a new product that they are pushing forward in Western Africa. This product promises to give one "fairer" skin, or in other words, tries to make a person's skin appear lighter. There is a stigma going around about fashion models and cover models, in that the skin color of whoever is modeling appears lighter than it should. What this product does is try and take that post-processed look, and make it a reality. Needless to say, a lot of people are not too crazy about this product. So much so that Nivea has been forced to take down a few of the ads, and as the BBC article highlights, there is a billboard in Ghana that used to hold that advertisement. There are still plenty of billboards around advertising this product, but it seems that people are able to speak with their wallets, and hopefully force Nivea to discontinue this product.


One of the signs that was took down


There is an obvious racial undertone that lies underneath this attempt by Nivea. Perhaps they are just making light of a new product that widens the options for women in terms of what they should choose. But in actuality, this is another attack against those with darker skin, giving the impression that lighter is better. It seems that this issue is never ending. When it seems that things may be getting better among races, this style of product rolls along, sending all the wrong signals. I only hope that the people of Western Africa do not buy into this scam, and realize they do not need this garbage in order to feel beautiful. They already are.

 All pictures and information are from this BBC article:
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-africa-41513711?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=59f08f9ce4b079cff57a232f%26Nivea%20takes%20down%20skin-lightening%20cream%20advert%26&ns_fee=0#post_59f08f9ce4b079cff57a232f

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