A dark-complexioned girl, making no waves whatsoever, is persuaded to use a fairness cream. Then, she becomes a glamorous cricket commentator, making her mark on a hitherto all-male world and dazzling a cricket star-turned-commentator in the process.

A dark-complexioned girl is engaged to be married to a much older man. The situation is a depressing one until she uses a fairness cream. And then, a handsome young man is attracted to her and becomes her husband.

A dark-complexioned girl, once again depressed at the hand that fate has dealt her, passes a shop window, displaying fairness creams. Buying and using one, she is instantly transformed. And no less a person than Rakesh Roshan promptly offers her a job.

A dark-complexioned girl has a small-time job. She uses a fairness cream. She gets a job as an air hostess, enabling her to change her lifestyle. From being a burden on her retired parents, she now can support them.

These are the story lines for TV commercials that have been aired over the last few months. The message they convey is clear. To be fair is to be lovely, and to be lovely is to be successful. Ergo, if you are dark-skinned, you are doomed. However, all is not lost! Help is at hand in the shape of a fairness cream. All you need to do is use it to change your destiny!

One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. The ads are so ridiculous that it is difficult to take them seriously. But clearly, the manufacturers don?t intend to amuse. Their purpose of achieving increased sales is deadly serious. Which is why they target the susceptible with a message that is both telling and chilling.

The ideal of fairness is firmly rooted in our psyche, a part of a mindset that is typically Indian. Expectant mothers are given milk with haldi in the belief that their babies will be born fair. The majority of would-be grooms advertising for brides demand someone ?slim, fair and beautiful?, while many would-be brides conceal the colour of their complexions behind such euphemisms as ?wheaten? and ?wheatish?. Our beauty queens are often light-skinned, and while our fair film actors are projected as symbols of purity and innocence, their dark-skinned counterparts are portrayed as evil seductresses.

It is true that the equating of ?fair? and ?lovely? cannot be blamed on the agencies responsible for these ads. Yet is it right that they should blatantly take advantage of the sensibilities of the susceptible? Is it right that they should add to the insecurities of the young by encouraging them to define themselves by the colour of their skin? If these commercials project fair as lovely, they themselves are definitely unfair and therefore unlovely.