Emami – HUL face off over face cream brand name

Emami, an Indian conglomerate, headquartered in Kolkata, India said that it had launched ‘Emami Glow and Handsome’ a week ago.

Emami recently hit out at competitor HUL for the latter’s decision to rebrand Fair and Lovely fairness cream for men as ‘Glow and Handsome’ because of the sheer similarity in names.

The maker of the ‘Fair and Handsome’ brand of men’s grooming products, Emami is not taking the decision of HUL lightly to rebrand its men’s product range as ‘Glow and Handsome’. The decision of HUL came in light after there was a global backlash against racial difference. Hindustan Unilever announced its decision to rename its flagship skincare brand ‘Fair and Lovely’ as ‘Glow and Lovely’, with the men’s range being rechristened to ‘Glow and Handsome’.

In a strongly-worded statement, Emami said, “Although shocked, we are not surprised to note HUL’s unfair business practice, which has been prevalent time and again to damage our brand image.”

Claiming to be a market leader in the men’s fairness cream with legal ownership of the trademarks, Emami said, “We have already launched a week back our brand ‘Emami Glow & Handsome’ digitally and necessary application has already been made to the relevant authorities.”

Emami, last month,  had got an order from court order which restricted HUL from airing its television commercial on Fair and Lovely fairness cream for men as per reports.  At that time, Emami had claimed that HUL’s advertisement had disparaging visuals and references to its ‘Fair and Handsome’ cream.

In the wake of racial attacks and a call against racial discrimination companies have made their own effort  Johnson & Johnson said it would stop selling skin-whitening creams in Asia and the Middle East.