According to my opinion its is not ethical to sell the product that is at best, only mild effective because at a spur of the moment the consumer one feel it is the best but as the time goes on one understands the difference and realizes that their trust and loyalty with implicit understanding have been impeached and this may affect the brand in certain ways like pricing, promotion and may be distribution. The product fair and lovely lightens the skin which is called the miracle worker and provides the result within the four weeks of the use but dermatologist have already explained the reasons that it is never going to last forever but on the contrary it is going to have a temporary effect because of bleaching.
It is not ethical to exploit cultural norms and values to, promote the product as the cultural norms and values plays an integral part in promoting the product but point should be considered that the advertising is providing benefits to the society rather than doing any harm to the society. Human dignity should be taken into consideration while promoting through cultural aspects. From this case it is clearly observed that sales of the products are based on the success of advertisements. Skin colour is a powerful theme in India and much of Asia where a lighter color represents a higher status. This idea have strengthened and supported in the advertisement by taking the advantage of the dark skin of the people in India and emphasis on the benefit of having a lighter colour skin.
I personally believe that advertising of fair and lovely is demeaning to the women as it have clearly pointed the discrimination on the basis of the colour as well as also have pointed that success in the leading fields are due to fair colour rather than intellectual ability. It also points out that beauty is defined in context to the colour of the skin rather then the features.It also suggest that beauty