The new normal is… there is no normal
If you have a bottle of shampoo labelled as being for “normal” hair, it could soon become a relic of a bygone age.
Normal is a problematic word. What’s normal, and who decides what is? Because the inference, of course, is that if you are not normal, you are somehow deviant. Not usually a positive thing.
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Remember the Tresemmé furore of last September?
Clicks carried an advert on its website for the made-by-Unilever shampoo, which labelled natural, black hair as, "dry, damaged and frizzy" and a white woman’s hair, "normal and fine”, leading to widespread boycotts of the store.
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That and similar backlashes around the world have sparked some change.
More than 100 Unilever brands will replace “normal” with terms such as “grey
hair” for shampoos or “moisture replenish” for skin creams by 2022.
This after Unilever commissioned a 10,000-person study across nine countries,
including in South Africa.
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Last
week, Unilever - owner of the Dove, Lifebuoy Vaseline, and Sunsilk brands, tweeted: “We’re removing the word ‘normal’ from ads, products and
packaging across our entire range of beauty and personal care brands, all over
the world.”
The company said it will also stop digitally altering the body shapes and skin
colour of their models.
Take a listen to what the respondents had to say….
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