Pakistani British fashion designer Tan France recently launched an online campaign on Instagram called ‘Shaded’ to talk about topics and events relating to racism, and his first target is fairness creams The Queer Eye star chose the Pakistani brand, Fair & Lovely, as his first target, uploading a picture of one of the company’s commercials accompanied by a passionate rant in the caption.
“The name itself..feels like a hate crime. How is this legal?” said the caption
Pakistani celebrities have also voiced their outrage on the promotion of these bleaching creams well into 2019, such as Massarat Misbah and Nadia Jamil. Popular celebrities like Mawra Hocane and Sajal Aly have also been called out for participating in the beauty cream campaigns. These creams are known to contain bleach and other toxic chemicals, and not only that, but promote the concept of having to be white to be accepted- this is why fairness creams are commonly referred to as a by-product of colonialism. Read more from ProperGaanda: Pakistan’s fashion industry still thinks it’s okay to use blackface