Analyzing Ethical Issues and Recommending Solutions for Fair & Lovely

This report delves into the ethical issues surrounding Fair & Lovely's marketing campaigns, focusing on the controversies surrounding colorism and its impact. It begins with an introduction to business ethics and the importance of ethical conduct for organizations, highlighting the case of Fair & Lovely (now Glow & Lovely) and its shift in branding due to criticisms. The main body of the report examines the ethical issues, including product safety and cultural implications. It then applies ethical tools and theories such as deontology, utilitarianism, virtue ethics, and rights theory to analyze the company's practices. The report offers several recommendations for the company to improve its brand image, avoid colorism, and focus on delivering quality products. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of adhering to ethical codes of conduct and avoiding unethical practices within an organization.

Ethical Issues

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Ethical issues...............................................................................................................................3
Application of Ethical tools and theories....................................................................................4
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journal.......................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics is refers to application of laws and rules in the organisation that can not
be breach by organisation (Aach and et. al., 2017). It sets the boundary for organisation that
organisation can not be step out from that. It is very important for the organisation that they
should work within their ethics. Ethics includes the discussion that are corporate social
responsibility, corporate governance, insider trading, etc. These topics are very important to
understand by the organisation so that they can not face any such type of conflicts. In this
context, Fair & Lovely is the Indian cosmetic product that is the part of Unilever. Unilever is the
parental body of Hindustan Unilever Limited in which Fair & Lovely is the product of HUL. Fair
& Lovely has change their name to Glow & Lovely after the conflicts due to their marketing
campaigns. This report cover the ethical issue that face by Fair & Lovely through their marketing
campaign.
MAIN BODY
Ethical issues
Ethics are the set of principles and rules that are designed for organisation from which
they have to follow them. They are the code of conduct from which organisations do their
business according to them (Barrett, Butler and Hale, 2016). It creates the boundary in which
people have to work with the compliances of rules and regulations. Ethics have certain principles
in which organisation perform their work that are integrity, honesty, fairness, loyalty, leadership
and respect and concern. In the FMCG sector, it is very important for the organisation that they
should follow their ethics. Because in FMCG sector, it includes household care, food products
and personal care products that are very sensitive for human healthcare. So that' why it is very
necessary to obey the ethics for health and safety. But there are some firms that can not
completely follow the ethics for example Fair & Lovely who renew their name as Glow & lovely
after the big criticism on their marketing campaign.
Glow & Lovely is the Indian cosmetic product that provided by HUL. Their marketing
campaign faced many criticism because they focuses on colorism which can not cover under
ethics. So in shortly, they violate their ethics or code of conduct that should not be breach. In
their marketing campaign they favouring colorism that violates the ethics of India (Campo-
Engelstein, 2019). In research HUL found that approximate 90% women wants to become fair.

So that's why companies focuses on white colour but they failed to remember that in India most
of women have black colour so they violate the ethics. It becomes very big issue because in some
ads they disgrace the celebrities like Dipika Padukone and Airshwarya Rai. Because they are not
so much white colour so they feel very disappointment through their marketing campaign. There
are many more ethical issues find in skin lightening products that are mentioned below:
 Product Safety: It is the most important issue that occur while using fairness cream
because there present many types of chemicals that are not good for skin. In fairness
creams, it is very important for women that they use safe products that could not harm
their beauty. But in fairness creams, many types of chemicals such as mercury and other
harmful toxic substances are present (Drennan, 2019).
 Entrenched cultural issue: It means that it stretch and develop many types of cultural
issues. For example, in South Africa almost all people have black colour that means
these ads gives very negative impact on their inheritance.
These above ethical issues are very important for considering in marketing campaigns
because it creates many problems if they not considered.
Application of Ethical tools and theories
Ethical theories are tools and techniques that are important for applying effective ethics
in organisation. Ethical theories are very helpful when the organisation take decisions regarding
to make ethics for the organisation. They are also helpful in dealing with challenges of
companies that are face when they make marketing campaigns. When the company decide
marketing campaigns then they consider many aspects in which most important is ethics that
they should consider. So the ethical theory helps to make right decisions in which they didn't
face nay issues (Joe, Raben and Phillips, 2016). Like Glow & Lovely (earlier Fair & Lovely) did
unethical marketing advertisements in which they consider colorism which are now banned in
India because it violates their ethics. So that's why it is very important for the organisation that
they follow ethics with applicability of ethical theories. There are main four ethical theories that
are important to understand for Glow & Lovely that are very well explained in below points: Deontology:
It is the theory that refers to people who adhere all obligations and duties that are
important in the organisation. In this theory person adhere their own duties as well as other
individual or organisational duties. It is very important when the individual or organisation

engage in decision making process then they consider this theory (McKernan, Clayton and
Walsh, 2018). A person who follow this theory will always keep his promise because this theory
obligates a person who perform their task when they keep own and others' promises. They
actually consider others' duties and responsibilities that really helps to overcome with the ethical
issues. This type of theory helps to reduce the conflicts of ethical issues because it considers'
others perspective that reduce their conflicts.
For example, if Fair & Lovely follow these theory then they can not be criticised by their
marketing campaign because they consider black people if they follow this theory. This theory
helps to people to understand others' duties and responsibilities. But there is some flaws also in
this theory i.e. there is no particular logical or rationale basis to understand someone's duties and
responsibilities.
 Utilitarianism:
It is another theory that based on someone's ability to pre assumed the results of actions.
It is the activity that undertaken by people that always do actions for create and develop
happiness and against on unhappiness. It is very needed because it generates happiness for others
and oppose to other who are with unhappiness. There are two types of utilitarianism that are rule
and act utilitarianism (Silberberg, Robetto and Grillo, 2018). Act utilitarianism is the activity that
done for the benefit of other people whereas rue utilitarianism is the activity that makes law and
deals with fairness for others. So that every person take an advantage from the decisions that are
taken in the organisation. For example, if Fair & Lovely dis acts for the benefits of others that
means they should consider almost all people which include black one also. They it may be not
create the conflicts in their marketing campaign that they face.
There also have some disadvantages of this theory that it is very obvious that no one
knows the exact abilities and their results because they are attempt predictions that can not be
accurate or exact. So it becomes the negative point of this theory. Virtue:
It is very clear from this theory that the person can judge others through their behaviour
not according to their actions. Because sometimes people do work not according to their normal
behaviour. So when the company wants to know their real facet they they go for applying this
theory i.e. virtues theory (Tiwari and Naringe, 2018). It helps to reveal the real facet of the

person that can be harmful for organisation. It is important for those people who cheat other
people.
But sometimes it is not appropriate when the person wants to change their behaviour. For
example, a scientist who had done lots of mistakes in his previous experiments but now they
change their attitude and knowledge so that they do not mistakes in future. This can not be
accepted by the people because they already done mistake and people judge according to their
past behaviour. So it become a disadvantage for the organisation where many people do their
work and learn from their previous mistakes. It can not accept the new behaviour of the person
because they though their previous behaviour can not be change and they judge only on the basis
of their previous behaviours (Uddin, 2018). So it is important to understand for the organisation
that they should go for flexible behaviour because every person learn new something from their
past behaviour just like Fair & Lovely change its name to Glow & Lovely.
 Rights:
The last but not least in the ethical theory that right theory refers to the theory in which
rights are considered prominently. In simple words, society who creates rights that should be
protected and prevented from their disgrace. These rights are protected from applying right
theory of ethical theories. For example, employees in the business wants to use a laptop of
organization so they take permission that they take in afternoon so it become right for the person
that they get laptop in afternoon.
But it is obvious that every theory has some disadvantages that is present in this theory
also. Sometimes rights of people get take unnecessary advantage by people and create
unnecessary issues that disgrace the values of organisation. It is important for organization that
they should know the importance or rights but they also know that no one person can take
unnecessary advantage. It really helps to deal with those people who are taking undue
advantages (Yazdekhasti, Rajabi and Akrami, 2017).
From the above discussion it is analysed that company have many types of ethical issue
they face but they can be deal only on the proper application of ethical theories.
Recommendations
Fair and lovely is a company that has faced a lot of backlash due to its discriminative
marketing campaigns. The company is trying its best to change its marketing strategy and
campaigns lately. Some of the recommendations that can be followed by the business

organisation in order to enhance its brand image and brand value in the market environment are
listed below :-
 The company's managers should not try to brainwash the consumers by false campaigns
just to increase the sales of their products in the target market. They should not promote
colour racism in the society. The business organisation should consider the emotions and
values of all the consumers in the market and should try not to hurt their sentiments and
emotions by spreading discrimination and promoting the idea that only white and fair
skin tone is appreciated in the society.
 The company should focus on delivering the right quality products and services to its
consumers and should not mislead them by making false claims. The consumer may
purchase the product once, but if the products does not cater to what it claims, the
consumers will not buy the offerings of the company again and this will lead to reduction
of consumer retention of the organisation. So, it is recommended that the company
should not indulge itself in such practices and should try and deliver the claimed results.
 The company should change their marketing patterns and rather than claiming to lighten
the skin tone and colour of the target consumers, the company should focus on adding
some other specifications to the products which can promote the consumers to except
themselves and be comfortable in their skin. This strategy can helps the company to be
more relevant in the market place and will also help the same to acquire good market
share.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above discussion that companies have certain ethics or code of
conduct that are very necessary to follow them. Because they set the boundaries from which
companies can not perform any task that are not allowed by ethics of organisation. It really helps
for not to do any unethical practices that can become a major issue for organisation. Sometimes
companies perform any unethical practice that are not allowed which can be deal only by ethical
theories. Because ethical theories are helps to take decision while performing any unethical trade
practices. It gives the right directions which helps to managers to take right decisions related to
the organization. This report shows the applicability of ethical theories in practical life with
suitable examples.

REFRENCES
Books and Journal
Aach, J., and et. al., 2017. Correction: Addressing the ethical issues raised by synthetic human
entities with embryo-like features. Elife. 6. p.e27642.
Barrett, P., Butler, M. and Hale, B., 2016. Ethical issues in family care today. Annual review of
nursing research. 34(1). pp.67-87.
Campo-Engelstein, L., 2019. Common Ethical Issues in Oncofertility. In Textbook of
Oncofertility Research and Practice (pp. 355-362). Springer, Cham.
Drennan, C., 2019. Assisted fertility–the legal and ethical issues. Medico-Legal Journal. 87(3).
pp.113-120.
Joe, K., Raben, F. and Phillips, A., 2016. The ethical issues of survey and market research. Wolf,
C., Joye, D., Smith, TW & Fu, Y. The SAGE Handbook of survey Methodology, pp.77-
86.
McKernan, L. C., Clayton, E. W. and Walsh, C. G., 2018. Protecting life while preserving
liberty: ethical recommendations for suicide prevention with artificial intelligence.
Frontiers in psychiatry. 9. p.650.
Silberberg, A., Robetto, J. and Grillo, M., 2018. Ethical Issues in Intrauterine Myelomeningocele
Surgery. The New Bioethics. 24(3). pp.249-257.
Tiwari, R. A. and Naringe, H. W., 2018. Internet security & Its ethical issues. International
Journal of Research in Social Sciences. 8(10). pp.85-92.
Uddin, K. N., 2018. Ethical Issues in Biomedical Research and Publication. BIRDEM Medical
Journal. 8(1). pp.1-8.
Yazdekhasti, H., Rajabi, Z. and Akrami, S. M., 2017. Ethical issues associated with advanced
paternal age and genetic disorders in their offspring. Arvand Journal of Health and
Medical Sciences. 1(4).