Johnson and Johnson to stop selling Clean and Clear fairness products in India

At a time when anti-racism voices are growing louder, Johnson and Johnson has decided to stop selling its skin whitening product range that has been popular in the Asian and Middle Eastern markets, including in India. The decision was reportedly taken in the face of renewed social pressure in the past weeks.

The company will no longer sell its Clean and Clear fairness products in India, a Johnson and Johnson spokeswoman said on June 19. While it would stop producing or shipping the products, the products already on the shelves will be available until the stocks run out.

The development comes barely a month after it announced the decision to pull the Neutrogena Fine Fairness line -- a product range endorsed by Deepika Padukone – from the Indian market.

Commenting on the decision, Johnson and Johnson said: “Conversations over the past few weeks highlighted that some product names or claims on our dark spot reducer products represent fairness or white as better than your own unique skin tone. This was never our intention; healthy skin is beautiful skin.”

Indian celebrities have been called out several times in recent years for endorsing skin lightening or whitening products. Such products were for long marketed primarily to women by some of the world’s biggest personal care brands such as Fair and Lovely, Ponds, Olay, and Garnier.

However, over the past decade, men have become their target group too, with many introducing separate fairness products for men as well. Prominent Indian actors such as John Abraham and Shahrukh Khan have endorsed those.

Fairness products are in fact not restricted to just foreign brands. Several Indian skincare companies such as Biotique, Lotus Herbal, and Himalaya also have a dedicated range of fairness products that fly off the shelves just as fast.

With inputs from Reuters