October 27, 2017
NEWS & VIEWS
Over the past few years, the team here at Truth have been working with high factor sunscreen brand, SunSense, to educate people in the UK about the risks of exposing their skin to ultraviolet rays.
SunSense is a leading household sunscreen brand in Australia, where regulations are amongst the most stringent in the world, however in the UK, attitudes towards tanning and sun protection are worryingly relaxed.
As skin cancer rates continue to soar here, it has become apparent that more needs to done to encourage people to better protect their skin and the opportunity for SunSense to lead the conversation with a clear and consistent health message was identified.
To date, PR and social media activity has served to position the SunSense brand as a voice of authority in the sector, as well as one that genuinely cares about the health and wellbeing of the British public.
In 2015 / 16 we ran an experiential campaign, ‘Dying for a Tan’, which saw SunSense reach out directly to the British public, by way of a UK wide tour, armed with an ultraviolet camera to show people the damage they had already done to their skin. See Here
The campaign proved a huge success and helped to position SunSense as the ‘go to’ brand for those looking for the highest level of protection. Cultural attitude change, however, takes time and more work needs to be done before wearing a high factor sunscreen becomes the norm.
When it came to planning for 2017, it was critical that activity should lead on naturally from ‘Dying for a Tan’ with an educational theme, whilst challenging the government to take skin protection more seriously.
This led to the idea for SunSense to call upon the UK government to follow in the footsteps of Australia, where commercial sunbeds (solariums) are now banned in every state, due to a direct link between sunbed use and melanoma.
The Tan Ban UK campaign launched in the summer with skin cancer survivor and actress Terri Dwyer and the response from the public has exceeded all expectation. Highlights include in depth articles in The Daily Mail, The Mirror and Granada Reports as well as high engagement and a healthy debate across all social media channels.
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