Unilever to drop the word ‘normal’ from its beauty products; here's why

Beauty and personal-care giant Unilever will no longer use the word “normal” on its products or in its advertising, thanks to a study that revealed that it makes most people feel excluded. A spokesperson of the company on Tuesday said that the word would be dropped from over 200 products. She added that the company was looking to achieve this by March 2022.

That’s not all. The company, behind personal care brands such as Dove, Axe, Sunsilk, and Vaseline, among other brands, added that it would not digitally alter the body shape, size or skin colour of models. According to a news release, the London-based company has taken these steps as part of its Positive Beauty initiative. In alignment with the initiative, the company will also focus on the advertisements that will feature underrepresented people. However, it did not further explain who fell under the ambit of the underrepresented.

Unilever said in a statement that the elimination of the word 'normal' is a step towards challenging narrow beauty ideals and bringing about a substantial shift in the way people define the term 'beauty'. “Using Unilever's world-class innovation and technology, Positive Beauty will also help to drive a transformation in how our products are designed and formulated so that they do more good for both people and the planet, deliver a superior product experience, and tap into consumer trends,” the statement read.

Explaining that the company was taking active measures to break harmful norms and stereotypes, Sunny Jain, Unilever’s president for beauty and personal care, said, “We know that removing ‘normal’ from our products and packaging will not fix the problem alone, but it is an important step forward.”

The aforementioned steps come after a study revealed that 56 per cent of participants across nine countries felt that the beauty industry could make people feel excluded. Seventy-four per cent respondents also said they wanted the beauty industry to not just make them look better but also help them feel better. Moreover, as many as seven in 10 people agreed that usage of the word “normal” on products and in advertising had negative effects on consumers. The sample size of the study was 10,000.