SRK's skin-cream ad irritates some people

Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood’s biggest star and corporate India’s most ubiquitous brand ambassador, is coming under pressure to abandon his controversial endorsement of a men’s skin-lightening cream.

Television commercials for Fair and Handsome, airing in August, show Mr Khan (or “SRK”) lauding a product that many see as entrenching discrimination based on skin colour by encouraging people to bleach themselves a lighter hue.

“To have a product based on a stigma is bad enough, but then to get a leading Bollywood actor to endorse it is a very silly decision,” said Suhel Seth, managing partner of Counselage, a strategic image management firm. “It’s not as if SRK needs the money. He should align himself with useful causes.”

Mr Khan, India’s Tom Cruise, is the first Bollywood superstar to lend his image to a skin-lightening product. Civil rights groups say the creams reinforce prejudice and undermine efforts to eradicate racial and ethnic discrimination.

“When the reigning star of Hindi cinema publicly endorses a cream that openly advocates fairness, lightness of skin, as desirable, nay necessary, it is a damn bad show. How could he do it?” wrote Shailaja Bajpai, a columnist in the Indian Express.

In the commercial, circulating on YouTube, Mr Khan urges a dark-complexioned and depressed-looking young man, struggling to attract female attention, to stop using skin-lightening products designed for women.

“Why are you secretly using a cream for girls?” Mr Khan asks. “Their skin is soft. Yours is rough and tough.” Several shades whiter and visibly more self-confident by the end of the 40-second commercial, the young man duly snares the girl of his dreams.

The adverts are the result of a two-year deal, reportedly worth $1.25m, (€930,000, £630,000), which the actor signed in June with Fair and Handsome’s makers, the Kolkata-based Emami Group.

The row over his endorsement, which has coincided with India’s celebration of the 60th anniversary of its liberation from colonialism, threatens to damage his status as the country’s default advertising vehicle. His office said yesterday that he was shooting and unavailable for comment.

Emami executives have admitted it took “seven to eight meetings” to persuade Mr Khan to endorse Fair and Handsome. In June, the actor said the endorsement was “yet another step in strengthening my faith in Emami and their products”.

Mr Khan, one of India’s most visible Muslims, sponsors everything from Hyundai cars to Pepsi. He first illustrated his appeal to “metrosexual” consumers in 2005 with a sensuous, semi-naked appearance in a Lux soap advert. Skin-lightening products are growing in popularity in India, enjoying about $320m in annual sales.

Source: FinancialTimesUK