BANGKOK – At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Unilever Thailand unveiled its newest whitening products for the Thai market, including a shampoo and a full line of bottled beverages.
Calling them “a revolution in whitening personal care products,” Sansanee Jengsri, Unilever’s vice-president of marketing, pulled back a white curtain to reveal light-skinned models with shocking white hair holding up the two new sub-brands to awaiting photographers.
“Thailand is one of the world’s leading markets for whitening products,” Jengsri explained. “Every girl in Thailand wants to be beautiful and confident, and Unilever has always understood that. That’s why we’re the market leader in whitening products, and these new brands will take that relationship into exciting new territory.”
Thailand is the premier market for the products, she added, with further rollouts expected in India, and China.
As photographers snapped pictures, other models dressed in white and wearing platinum wigs passed out free samples of AbsoluteClear, the new whitening shampoo described in promotional materials handed out to the press as “The secret to true white beauty for your hair.”
AbsoluteClear’s active ingredient is “VITA-White,” a patented combination of bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and adhesive talc plus emulsifiers. According to an advertorial concurrently published in this month’s editions of leading Thai beauty magazines Praew, Ellle, and Cosmopolitan, VITA-White is the creation of Dr. Graeme Van Pelt, a leading hair-care scientist working in Unilever laboratories in the Netherlands.
“White hair brings out the best in your white skin,” said Jengsri. “And as we at Unilever have always said to the women of Asia, white skin is the foundation of all beauty and self-worth.”
Also launched at the event was Inner Beauty, a new line of fortified and flavored mineral water that “Brings out the glow within.” With four initial flavors of Orange, Mint, Green Tea, and KiwiLime, Inner Beauty contains important vitamins and minerals like B1 and Niacin, as well as a milder form of VITA-White which has been approved for human consumption by the Thai FDA.
Jengsri declined comment about rumors that it had been rejected by food regulatory boards of several other countries, including Malaysia and Japan. Instead, she focused on the brand’s position in the Unilever family.
“Inner Beauty completes the picture,” said Jengsri. “By gently bleaching out your stomach and intestinal linings, you can feel confident that your brightest and whitest self will always be presented – even to your doctor during endoscopy or invasive surgery.”
According to Philip Choo, a marketing analyst in Hong Kong, the timing is right for a whitening shampoo.
“In Asia, the sales growth of whitening products has consistently outpaced similar category products that don’t make whitening claims,” he said. “As a result, adding a whitening property to personal care products – whether it’s skin cream, toothpaste, deodorant, sunblock, or even after-shave – is not just a competitive advantage, it’s absolutely crucial. It was only a matter of time before hair became the new whitening territory.”
He was more skeptical about the prospects of a whitening beverage, citing the near-invisibility of the end benefits. “It could be a defensive move,” he added. “P(roctor) and G(amble) have been rumored to be working on a whitening cotton bud, and this may be a pre-emptive move to claim the internal-whitening market.”
AbsoluteClear and InnerBeauty will be supported by full media ad campaigns to be launched within the week, featuring TV commercials, print ads, and billboards, as well as various below-the-line “activation” insertions, such as white-haired women appearing in Bangkok nightclubs under white spotlights to pass out samples of AbsoluteClear.
The campaign for InnerBeauty will feature the slogan “How Deep Is Your White?” and include an interactive, online contest to find the contestant whose intestinal tract is the lightest in color, with a grand prize of a dream date with a Thai television soap star to be named later.
Initial reaction from passers-by at the press event were mixed, but positive overall. Shina Kularak, a high school student, echoed the majority opinion, claiming “I think the white hair looks so sexy on those models. I’d like to try it.” But Narong Pattanapan, a third-year political-science major at Thammasat University, found the idea unappealing, saying “This obsession with being white is disgusting. What’s next? Bleaching our eyes with whitening saline solution?”
According to Jengsri, a whitening saline is still in development. “Maybe late ‘09,” she said.
