A history of SunSmart media campaigns
A strong media presence is the key to keeping SunSmart in the public arena. Since the beginning, in the early 1980s, SunSmart has used a combination of public relations and advertising to promote UV, sun protection and skin cancer prevention messages.
Our media messages have always been well-researched, innovative, attention grabbing and customised to engage with the community and challenge the social norms of the time.
Early sun protection media messages were positive, encouraging and designed to be light hearted and fun. As the public became more aware of the Slip! Slop! Slap! message, SunSmart began to focus on telling people how they can reduce their skin cancer risk and how to identify changes to their own skin that may be a sign of skin cancers.
Cancer Council Victoria has tracked the public's response to our media campaigns since 1988. These results have played an integral role in guiding our key messages and the focus and directions of future advertising campaigns.
- Dark Side of Tanning (2009–11)
- Farmers campaign (2010–11)
- No tan is worth dying for: Clare Oliver (2008)
- Tattoo (2003–04)
- Timebomb (2000)
- How to remove a skin cancer (1996–98)
- Leave your hat on (1991–92)
- Slip! Slop! Slap! Seek! and Slide (1980s - present)
- Slip! Slop! Slap! (1981–late 1980s)
No tan is worth dying for: Clare Oliver (2008)
In August 2007, a young Melbourne woman brought the issue of solariums to the attention of many Australians. Battling end-stage melanoma, Clare Oliver had only weeks to live, yet she decided to use her remaining time and energy to make certain other people understood the dangers of solarium use.
In the final weeks of her life, Clare's story received significant public and media attention, and, more importantly, she achieved major change. In Victoria, the State Health Minister Daniel Andrews announced that the solarium industry would be regulated and other states have since followed suit.
Given the overwhelming public response to Clare's story, Cancer Council Australia and SunSmart, together with support from the Clare Oliver Foundation, decided to make a television commercial featuring footage from Clare's only two television interviews on the ABC's 7:30 Report and 60 Minutes.
Clare's family gave permission for the advertisement to be made, and Clare's oncologist, Associate Professor Grant McArthur from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, was also involved in the development of the advertisement.
Media attention about Clare's story was strongly focused on her use of solariums. However, Clare also talked about her sun exposure and desire for a tan. Cancer Council felt that focusing this new television advertisement on tanning would have an impact on young people more broadly and therefore have a greater public health impact.
The advertisement's main message is ‘no tan is worth dying for'. In Clare's own words, ‘choose life, choose to be fair'.
The ABC and Nine Network provided the footage at no cost, and Richard Lowenstein (renowned for his direction of music videos for bands, such as INXS, Hunters and Collectors, and Crowded House, and director of cult Australian films, such as Dogs in space and He died with a felafel in his hand) edited the advertisement.
The advertisement was launched in February 2008 and distributed to television networks nationally as a Community Service Announcement.
Download Clare Oliver's No tan is worth dying for campaign
Tattoo (2003–04)
Tattoo was produced in response to evidence that many young Australians think they are safe if they tan but don't burn and that a tan looks 'attractive' and ‘healthy'. The advertisement carries the tagline 'Skin cancer – it's killer body art'.
The target group for this advertisement was 17–24 year olds. When focus tested among this group, the advertisement was considered credible and the tattoo was regarded as a symbol of youth culture. Importantly, most of the participants said it would make them think about their tanning behaviours.
The campaign, launched during National Skin Cancer Action Week in November 2003, has used television, radio and additional promotional material, such as posters for community health settings and a resource kit for secondary school teachers of health, media studies, english and personal development. The kit includes a curriculum book and video, which features The Making of Tattoo, a documentary about the making of the advertisement.
The television and radio advertisement went to air in January 2004 and again in January 2005 with a total budget of $390,000 over the two years.
The awareness levels of the advertisement when researched in 2005 found that 71% of those interviewed remembered seeing the Tattoo advertisement and 78% thought it would influence their tanning behaviour.
Timebomb (2000)
Timebomb was launched in January 2000, following the success of the How to remove a skin cancer campaign. With a media spend of only $100,000 per year over two summer periods, a significant part of the strategy was to gain unpaid media promotions through television and radio news outlets. This strategy provided SunSmart with excellent coverage and additional support for the paid media campaign.
Support from television networks was very strong, resulting in many community service announcements; however, as a result of the limited budget, the awareness level of the Timebomb campaign was just over 50%.
Timebomb provided SunSmart with the opportunity to communicate about preventing skin cancer and detecting it early. SunSmart received a letter from a melanoma patient who expressed their appreciation for the commercial. After viewing the advertisement, they had a spot and lump checked, which was found to be a melanoma that was treated effectively thanks to early detection.
Download the Timebomb campaign
How to remove a skin cancer (1996–98)
In the mid-1990s, the Victorian community had high awareness of Slip! Slop! Slap!
However, SunSmart was still concerned about young people's sunburn and tanning rates and decided, to develop a hard-hitting, graphic advertisement.
While hard-hitting health messages are now daily television viewing, the How to remove a skin cancer campaign was the first of its kind. This campaign developed by James Woolett in 1996, provided SunSmart with significant public relations opportunities through television and radio news outlets. The launch of the advertisement in 1997 generated over 100 media stories in television news and print and radio outlets.
The advertisement was created in close consultation with skin specialists (dermatologists) and plastic surgeons in Melbourne. It accurately depicts the procedure used to remove skin cancer and graft skin onto the site. In focus groups with males and females aged 18-24 years, the response to the advertisement was strong as it quickly gained audience attention.
The advertisement ran in 1996/97 and 1997/98 seasons. Despite the small budget spend of $240,000 over the two years, the awareness level of the advertisement was 75%. During this period, SunSmart found a decreasing trend in summer sunburn rates.
Download the How to remove a skin cancer campaign
Leave your hat on (1991–92)
The Leave your hat on campaign showed people with lighter skin colour getting ready to head outdoors and enjoy the day. It was a lighthearted advertisement that used the hit song 'You can leave your hat on'.
The advertisement was aimed at younger people, and in particular young men, as research had continued to find they were most likely to place themselves at risk of skin cancer.
The television and radio campaign ran in summer 1991/92 and again in 1992/93. The media budget was over $500,000 for the two years. Evaluation showed that 63% of the Victorian population remembered the advertisement.
Download the Leave your hat on campaign
Slip! Slop! Slap! (1981–late 1980s)
One of the most successful health campaigns in Australia's history was launched in 1981, when a cheerful seagull in board shorts, t-shirt and hat danced his way across our TV screens singing the jingle.
‘Slip, Slop, Slap!
It sounds like a breeze when you say it like that
Slip, Slop, Slap!
In the sun we always say 'Slip, Slop, Slap!'Slip, Slop, Slap!
Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat
Slip, Slop, Slap!
You can stop skin cancer - say: 'Slip, Slop, Slap!'
At a time when melanoma rates were climbing and evidence of the link between UV radiation and skin cancer was mounting, the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria (now Cancer Council Victoria) approached broadcaster Philip Adams – then creative director of an ad agency – to come up with a campaign that would encourage Australians to protect their skin.
Adams and colleagues, Peter Best (composer) and Alex Stitt (designer/animator), created Sid the Seagull and adapted a jingle from a Queensland Cancer Fund campaign – Slip Slop Shove – to produce the TV commercial that was an immediate hit with kids and parents alike.
Throughout the 1980s, variations of the original Slip! Slop! Slap! advertisement were produced and shown as paid advertisements and as community service announcements. They featured Sid's kids and Sid and friends in protective sunglasses and seeking shade from a tree 'between 11 and 3'. The Slip! Slop! Slap! slogan is the core message of the Cancer Council's SunSmart program and has become part of the Australian language.
Cancer Council believes its Slip! Slop! Slap! campaign has played a key role in the dramatic shift in sun protection attitudes and behaviour over the past two decades.
Download the original Slip! Slop! Slap! Sid Seagull campaign
Over the years, the sun protection message has expanded to Slip! Slop! Slap! Seek! Slide! and Sid the Seagull has returned to our TV screens with a new and improved jingle. Sid asks us to protect ourselves in five ways from skin cancer whenever the UV level is three and above:
- Slip on sun protective clothing that covers as much of your body as possible.
- Slop on SPF 30+ broad spectrum sunscreen liberally to dry skin, at least 20 minutes before sun exposure. Reapply every two hours when outdoors.
- Slap on a broad brimmed hat that shades your face, neck and ears.
- Seek shade.
- Slide on sunglasses.
Download the new Slip! Slop! Slap! Seek! and Slide! video here
Latest news
Practice what you preach at the beach
SunSmart is encouraging parents to role model sun safe behaviour after a new Australian study has shown that sun protection behaviour of children is heavily influenced by what their parents do to protect themselves from too much of the sun's ultraviolet rays.
Tennis stars serve SunSmart message ahead of Australian Open
Tennis stars, John Newcombe, Felix Mantilla and Alicia Molik are urging players and spectators to be SunSmart while enjoying the on court action at this year's Australian Open.
