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Chennai June 15 Mr Tex Gunning, Group Vice-President, Southeast Asia & Australasia, Unilever Ltd, Singapore, today hinted that Hindustan Lever may not continue its Fair & Lovely ad campaign, which has come under heavy criticism for showing darker women at a disadvantage vis-à-vis fair-complexioned women.

Fair & Lovely, the largest-selling skin whitening cream in the world, has a over-50 per cent share of the Rs 1,200- crore Indian market for skin whitening products, a market that is estimated to be growing at 15 per cent a year.

"Obviously we will not be able to continue the ad campaign in this fashion for long," Mr Gunning said, while answering a question from an audience at the end of his valedictory address at a seminar on corporate social responsibility, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

For many women, this is just the message they would want to hear. Activists like Ms Brinda Karat, General Secretary, All India Democratic Women's Association, have complained to the National Human Rights Commission against the ads, calling them "discriminatory on the basis of the colour of skin".

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