Unilever to drop 'Fair' from its infamous 'Fair & Lovely' skin cream range

Following a massive backlash on social media, the Indian unit of Unilever on Thursday announced its decision to rebrand its "Fair & Lovely" range of skin products.

It said it will drop "fair" from the brand name, in a bid to make the products more "inclusive".

"We recognise that the use of the words 'fair', 'white' and 'light' suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don't think is right, and we want to address this," Sunny Jain, president of Unilever's beauty and personal care division, said in a statement.

"We are making our skin care portfolio more inclusive ...a more diverse portrayal of beauty," Hindustan Unilever Chairman Sanjiv Mehta added in another statement.

It comes as Johnson & Johnson announced this month its decision to stop selling skin-whitening creams.

Many companies have been called out for selling products that promote a certain stereotype around people with darker skin tones.