Is Glow Replacing the Fair in Fair and Lovely?

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Is Glow Replacing the Fair in Fair and Lovely?

In a move that probably everyone saw coming, Hindustan Uniliver or HUL is now seeking trademark registration for the new name for its FCMG products: and the name is Glow and Lovely. Dropping the “Fair” from “Fair and Lovely”, it’s a move to celebrate, and acknowledge the beauty of skin colours beyond white.

This news doesn’t come from HUL, but the controller general of trademark registration who received the application for the same on June 17th 2020.

The progress of “Glow and Lovely” trademark

Companies, whether big or small, have to take the same legal route and thus, for now, “Glow & Lovely” has been sent for Vienna Codification.

What is Vienna Codification?

When the trademark is a logo, it first has to be coded as per the Vienna Codification Standard before going through the conventional trademark registration process. Once the codification completes, the rest of the trademark proceedings takes place, where the distinctness of the mark is verified.

Right now, Hindustani Unilever is ensuring every legal ground is covered before it unveils the mark to the world in a celebratory fashion.

“We have filed many application of trademark registration. Some have been accepted, some are pending, but all of them are going through the process” – the spokesperson of HUL said while accentuating on the importance of trademark registration.

“We have to make sure that every brand of ours is fully protected before revealing the brand name to the public. There are many copycats active in the market and this registration process will deter them from creating future problems for us.”

However, despite the name “Glow and Lovely” inexplicably leaked to the public, HUL maintains that they can neither confirm nor deny the actual name that they are revealing.

When HUL got rejected?

It’s not the first time that Hindustani Uniliver has filed trademark application in India for the term “Glow and Lovely”. It attempted the same back in 2018. But, in a lesson that’s humbling to many small time trademark applicants, the application faced rejection. But the company remained unfazed by this failure – applying for trademarking the same name two years later.

Trademark Objection is just the part of the process. It’s there to teach the nuances of what your trademark should be, and how to refine to successfully complete the trademark registration process.

Products covered in the latest trademark application

The trademark “Glow and Lovely” intends to cover the following products:

1. Soaps
2. Facial packs
3. Oils
4. Creams
5. Lotions
6. Beauty masks
7. Skin care preparation products like
   1. Pre-shave
   2. After-shave preparation
   3. Perfumes
   4. Sun tanning
   5. And more

Is the company trying to fight off beauty standards rampant across the world?

Right now, there is an upheaval against racial discriminations across the globe. Thus, it made us ask if HUL made this application to show it’s solidarity with the movement and fight off “narrow” beauty standards of today’s world. The corporation said no. In its statement the spokesperson said that the new brand name is the culmination of INR 2,000 Crore brand over the years.

We live in a diversified world, so we better serve it with a diversified beauty.

HUL also has said that their products will now focus on creating products that will cover the broad spectrum of beauty – celebrating all types of skin colours.

Furthermore, the brand name sits well with Unilever’s policies to remove the use of words that involve:

1. White/whiteness
2. Light/lightening
3. And Fair/fairness

Call is virtual signalling or a genuine desire to redefine beauty standards with this evolving world, we can safely say that despite its claims, the Company is trying to leave the term “Fair” behind.

Conclusion

Branding not only allows you to uniquely establish your business, it also allows you to spread your own ideology among the people. “Fair & Lovely”, helped define the narrow beauty standard that plagues India even today. “Glow and Lovely” is an attempt at redefining it to be more inclusive and add more colours to the beauty of this world.

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