Brands
Beauty for all: Unilever says no to ‘normal’
NEW DELHI: Pop queen Rihanna's Fenty Beauty shook up the beauty space in 2017 when it came out with 40 different shades of foundations that catered to a rainbow of skin tones, finding immediate favour with deep-skinned beauties. Fenty sparked an epochal shift in the beauty industry, with make-up brands waking up to the idea of inclusivity and smashing stereotypical beauty standards. More recently, the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement has been such that it sparked introspection among beauty brands in India, leading to several cosmetic manufacturers attempting to be more inclusive and diversity-friendly in terms of their products and marketing.
The latest is Dove soap maker Unilever, which has taken the call to remove the word "normal" from its beauty and personal care products, as well as stop digital alterations of body shapes and skin colour of models used in its advertising in a drive to be more inclusive.
The move from the multinational consumer goods giant, which is one of the top advertisers in the world, comes as it tries to move beyond the backlash it has faced in recent times for some of its advertising campaigns.
Just last year, Unilever deigned to drop the word “fair” from its Fair & Lovely skin lightening products in India in the face of rising consumer ire over its negative stereotyping of darker skin tones’ instead renaming its top selling skin-lightening brand to "Glow & Lovely".
While in 2017, the company faced a social media outcry over an advert for Dove body wash which showed a black woman removing her top to reveal a white woman. The ad was dropped after it was accused of racism. The company had then apologised stating that the ad “was intended to convey that Dove Body Wash is for every woman and be a celebration of diversity, but we got it wrong”.
In another instance, an ad for its TRESemmé haircare forced Unilever to pull all its TRESemme products from South African retail stores for 10 days due to backlash. It described images of African black hair as "frizzy and dull," and "dry and damaged" while a white woman's hair was referred to as "normal", a case of tone-deaf advertising in a racially diverse country, which predictably resulted in furore on social media, and even public protests.
"We know that removing 'normal' alone will not fix the problem, but we believe it is an important step towards a more inclusive definition of beauty," Unilever beauty and personal care president Sunny Jain told Reuters.
Unilever plans to roll out this policy worldwide and in India, which will take a year to implement. Globally, more than a hundred Unilever brands will have the word "normal" removed to describe skin type or hair texture, and replaced with terms such as "grey hair" for shampoos or "moisture replenish" for skin creams by March next year.
Unilever said a poll it conducted of about 10,000 people globally showed that more than half the respondents felt using "normal" to describe hair or skin made people feel excluded, while 70 per cent said using the word in advertising had a negative impact.
"Who is to decide what is normal? Is curly hair normal? Or dry skin normal?" Indian subsidiary of Unilever, HUL executive director beauty & personal care Priya Nair said as quoted by The Economic Times. The company also plans to raise the number of advertisements portraying people from diverse groups who are under-represented, the report said.
The company also said it would stop digitally altering body shape, size, proportion and skin tones of models it uses in its own advertisements, or those of its paid influencers across all its brands, a move that started with the Dove brand in 2018.
Whether Unilever’s push for inclusivity and diversity is merely cosmetic tokenism in response to social ‘wokeness’ or a sign of more positive things to come, only time will tell.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
