Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The blacker the berry? Or the paler the juice?






You see, I was going to leave this one alone, but I can't so here we go.


Cosmetics giant L'Oreal is denying it lightened Beyonce's skin tone in an ad.

"We highly value our relationship with Ms. Knowles. It is categorically untrue that L'Oréal Paris altered Ms. Knowles' features or skin tone in the campaign for Feria hair color," the Paris-based company said in a statement sent to the Associated Press through the singer's representative. A representative for Beyonce said the singer would have no comment beyond L'Oreal's statement.


For a company that's trying to break into the billion dollar black hair market, to pick one of the biggest and most beautiful black female celebrities on the planet and photoshop the melanin out of the woman...does not make me want to buy L'oreal products for my hair...ever.

It makes it seem like they don't know what they're doing with the black hair market so their products would probably make my hair fall out or something.

To me, its a shameless and ill thought move which reinforces the most negative stereotype of black women...the lighter your skin and more European your features the more attractive you are.


Shame on you L'oreal, shame on you!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beyonce too..girl i know the money is good but u gotta have a say in what they make u look like in the end...or don't u?

Anonymous said...

in my opinion, i think it is a case of the white or caucasian pple involved with l'oreal not really taking their time to study the typical black skin & hair. In terms, of understanding that the majority of us don't have straight hair but kinky, woolly or coarse except when it is straightened with chemicals. Which is not so bad as some hair can be difficult to manage, that being the case.

then again, if i may so, it is an unconscious habit of the european/white/caucasian of being comfortable with anyone that looks like them. maybe it is their own way of connecting; i can't really say. i am not them - it is just my observation and i may r could be wrong.

1 solution is that they could employ more blacks that have working knowledge of the typical black hair & skin thereby working alongside with them, coming up with a better idea. than running to the quick solution of using skin lighteners as most blacks r in the brown, medium brown, dark category.

to end it all i love the saying, 'the blacker the berry the juicer ........' sthg like that

TigerTem said...

@anon...well its a $5 million a year contract. I would like to believe maybe she didn't see the pics before they went to print. Maybe she was busy getting married and asked her PR people to handle it. I'd also like to believe she's in discussion with the bigwigs behind the scene to work out their 'official strategy'. And I think when you're in the public eye, it never pays to be hasty with a reaction.

TigerTem said...

@nkiru...interesting thoughts. I strongly suspect they didn't do enough relevant research when they were deciding to launch into black hair care. Its a minefield at the best of times and yes, afro hair has virtually nothing in common with caucasian hair.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they come back from this rather disastrous start. Anyway...the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice.

Anonymous said...

The question we all need to be asking is - didn't she consent?

I can bet my last dollar she agreed to this.

Ziba! said...

You know what I think, I think it's what's wrong with the world in general. Everyone just thinks being 'white' is be'er (see what that's done to MJ...lol). That's why you don't even see more black models, actresses et al, making it to the top. 'neways, I think Mrs B knew about this because she still hasn't said anything.

TigerTem said...

@ renaissane man...hmm. I'd still like to believe she didn't consent to it!


@josephine...thanks for sharing. I hadn't realised she still hadn't addressed the issue. How very interesting.