Skin Cancer Campaign Targets Vanity

By Jessica Marszalek13mar07

YOUNG women who ignore health warnings about skin cancer may be coaxed out of the sun by a new campaign appealing to their vanity.

Visiting academic Dr Kristina Jackson today presented US research into reshaping attitudes on sun protection and discouraging sun tanning at a Brisbane medical conference hosted by the Queensland Cancer Fund and Queensland University of Technology.

Dr Jackson discussed her intervention method in which a group of young women were shown a video that promoted the beauty of pale skin, and the effects of skin cancer.

A follow-up four months later showed the women had reduced the time they spent sunbathing and took more precautions.

Queensland Cancer Fund SunSmart coordinator Lisa Naumann said Dr Jackson's research, which focused on the beauty benefits of avoiding the sun, would be looked at to see how it could be used to target young women in Australia.

She said young women often missed messages which drove home the possibility of developing skin cancer and it was hoped a different slant, showing the negative effects of sun exposure such as wrinkles, would be more effective.

She said measures such as photo-ageing had been used to drive home the message.

"(It was) not so much scare tactics but just saying this is the reality of it," Ms Naumann said.
"Just by showing them the damaging effects of the sun, it had a positive influence."

She said an advertising campaign could be used to encourage young women to "enjoy the skin they're in".