The soap that promises to make you white

The idea that soap can cleanse more than just bodily grime has roots all the way back to the early 19th century, as seen in an early Pears ad that portrays a saintly-looking white child “showing the light” to a black child by introducing him to the wonders of Pears soap that will instantly clear away his troublesome skin colour (fig 1). Barring for the moment obvious racial agendas within the ad, the fact that only middle and upper-class citizens could afford to buy novel consumer products, and in targeting the financially comfortable, the soap ads resulted in the distortion of America’s actual diverse socio-economic, ethnic, and racial landscape and consequently led to the standardization of what is considered beautiful. Despite the ad being more than a hundred years old, the premise of lightening one’s skin pigmentation in order to appear not only more conventionally attractive but also to gain acceptance and esteem within society is one that is all too relevant today.

The beauty culture arose directly from the development of consumer culture, upon which women built their personal identity with help from the proliferation of beauty products meant to help them do so. Ads for beauty products helped women navigate through this new beauty culture and relieved the social anxieties produced alongside the flood of products, brands, and new technologies.

A recent television ad for a skin bleaching cream (fig. 2) is ironic not only for the values it preaches, of the desirability for fair skin and the stigma of dark skin, but also for the manufacturer’s apparently contradictory agenda: producing skin lightening creams that openly promote the superiority of fair skin, while simultaneously running ads in the Western world advocating women to accept themselves and all their physical imperfections.

The beauty culture arose directly from the development of consumer culture, upon which women built their personal identity with help from the proliferation of beauty products meant to help them do so. Ads for beauty products helped women navigate through this new beauty culture and relieved the social anxieties produced alongside the flood of products, brands, and new technologies. Is it ethically correct however to focus on such insecurities as skin colour?

Source: www.designhistorylab.com