Abstract
This article explores the discriminatory and exclusionary nature of many advertisement campaigns for skin-lightening products. It employs textual analysis to examine a television advertisement for the product 'Fair & Lovely'. The article explains how this particular advert serves to articulate both imperial and neo-imperial discourses. Analysis of the advertisement is used as a basis for a wider discussion of India's 'fairness complex' and the complexities of complexion from a postcolonial perspective. The article demonstrates that imperialism - ancient and modern - and neoimperial/ globalisation discourses have provided the socio-cultural framework in which associations between white skin and beauty, wealth and success have developed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 85-92 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Geography |
| Volume | 98 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |