India, June 22 -- A skincare brand, Sanfe, is getting criticised online for promoting a product that shows a dark-skinned woman turning fair after using its cream. The product - called 'instant tan and dead skin removal exfoliating gel' - is promoted as an anti-tan cream. However, the ad plays on the age-old, 'regressive' idea that dark skin is something to be ashamed of.

On June 21, Instagram user Himi Khandelwal, who calls herself a beauty nerd, slammed Sanfe for the ad. Himi criticised the brand for sharing the ad with an text that says, "Husband ne chhod diya kalepan ki vajah se kisi gori se shadi kar li (My husband left me because of my dark complexion and married a fair-skinned woman)."

Himi confessed that seeing the ad made her e...