Biolink soap taps 'whitening' fad

A series of four light-hearted 15-second commercials show people doing a double-take upon coming across a seemingly familiar face. In one spot, a girl riding a light railway train has a hard time recognising a friend waving at her. In another, a man thinks he's made a mistake greeting a female friend, waiting under the dim light of a bus shelter. David Guerrero, chief creative director of BBDO/ Guerrero Ortega, said: "We wanted to avoid the usual clichés. I believe the team came up with something simple. No dramatic change in personal fortune or sudden magnetic attraction of every male in a two-mile radius is promised. Simply, whiter skin." The whitening soap category has been seeing remarkable growth in recent years, thanks to an intensifying fad for paler skin among Asian women. Within the category in the Philippines, herbal soaps are basically papaya soaps and comprise 62 per cent of the total volume of whitening soaps in the market. Splash Corporation entered the herbal whitening soap market with a formula based on green papaya extract, which claims to offer improved 'whitening' efficacy compared to soap formulas based on orange papaya. In 2004, Biolink exceeded its sales targets by 235 per cent.