Raising the next generation of "Fair & Lovely" consumers

"When I grow up, I want to look Indian!"

If you want to help your "dark-skinned" child to develop a slight inferiority complex, I have a simple recipe: Take her to any Gini and Jony shop. This high-end Indian retailer of children's clothing has hundreds of outlets all over the subcontinent, and a branch was opened recently in Thimphu. Naturally, I went to see what the buzz is all about.


While the store is arranged nicely (Western-only wear, in case you wondered), I found the decor striking: All over the shop are huge banners of happy, smiling, and cute Caucasian boys and girls of the Scandinavian blond-with-blue-eyes type, wearing the G and J clothes. There is not a single banner with an Indian or Asian child model in sight.

Check out the G and J website, too. Just by looking at their catalogue, you wouldn't know it's an Indian retailer.
Apparently, this is how you market in India these days, and children are not spared. I found it sad, even a bit depressing. Last, but not least, here's Gini and Jony "corporate philosophy":

We believe that children must be happy. It’s the only goal set for ourselves. A happy, laughing child is one of the best sights of life and believe that childhood lasts a lifetime.

A note to the G & J folks who are sitting in their Mumbai offices and planning their next campaign: Asian children can be happy too.