Fair is beautiful, but so is dark. This was the message driven home by the ‘Dark is Beautiful’ campaign that went viral with dusky actor Nandita Das’ endorsement.
The campaign, which was an initiative spearheaded by Kavitha Emmanuel of Women of Worth (WOW) — a network aiming to empower women — asked for a firm ‘no’ to colour discrimination.
Emphasising that ‘there are 1.2 billion shades of beautiful’, the campaign aimed to spread the word about embracing beauty in whatever colour it is packaged in — be it a dark chocolate tone, a sun-kissed caramel or burnished gold.
So, for those at WOW, the Advertising Standards Council of India’s guidelines advising fairness and skin lightening products not to discriminate based on skin colour comes a reason to rejoice. Colour discrimination is seeped into a society that has internalised the message that fairness cosmetics promote in order to gain market share.
But now, with the ASCI’s guidelines, which stipulate that ‘advertising should not directly or implicitly show people with darker skin as unattractive, unhappy, depressed or concerned’, there is relief at last for those who do not fit into the conventional mould of beauty. Dusky Nandhini Suruliraj applauded the move. “Ads promoting that the only type of beauty is fair is ridiculous, especially in India, where there are so many beautiful women with dark skin,” she said.
If the guidelines are strictly adhered to, days of seeing a Shah Rukh Khan or a Sonam Kapoor rubbing on lotion that promises to wipe away dark skin are indeed numbered.
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The Chinese media recently reported the shocking news of the death of three football fans who burnt the midnight oil watching the World Cup on TV. The big time gap between their nation and Brazil, leading to sleeplessness, is believed to have caused the deaths.
India is eight-and-a-half hours ahead of ‘samba’ land. Like the Chinese, many Chennaiites too are stuck between passionately watching the game live and keeping up with work schedule, only a few hours after the final whistle. A few late evening games are bliss if only top teams lock horns.
With South Africa only three-and-a-half hours behind India, World Cup 2010 was perfect party time for footballs fans here, with evenings glued to television sets at pubs and party spots.
This time, football fever has proved tough, with fans here having to stay wide awake till 5 a.m. But, back to work in a few hours and the day ahead at office could be cruel.
Some fans have taken long leave, some have bunked work but others have no choice but to roam about like zombies, through the day’s work.
Some have chosen to make do with repeat telecasts amidst arguments that real supporters of the sport catch the action live and kicking, quite literally.
With the upcoming round of 16 and rest of the games kicking off in the late evenings and midnight, fans may be forced to make game plans of their own.
