Facebook’s skin-whitening app

Facebook’s skin-whitening app

Users in India can lighten profile pictures.

July 14, 2010 2:35 by Rasha Reslan

Skincare giant Vaseline has introduced a new skin whitening application for Facebook India.

According to the AFP report in Gulf News, the application enables users to make their skins appear lighter in their profile pictures. The report says the download is designed to promote Vaseline’s range of skin-lightening creams for men, “a huge and fast-growing market driven by fashion and a cultural preference for fairer skin.”

The new application has launched with a campaign fronted by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur, who is depicted in promotional pictures with his face divided into dark and fair halves.

“We started campaign advertising (for the application) from the second week of June and the response has been pretty phenomenal,” said Pankaj Parihar from global advertising firm Omnicom, which designed the campaign.

The report says that in 2009, a poll of nearly 12,000 people by online dating site Shaadi.com revealed that skin tone was considered the most important criteria when choosing a partner in three northern Indian states.