Living in Shade

I think one of the best tactics in order to raise awareness about serious causes, is to have a little fun with it. Fun and memorable promotions do the trick by making it something that people will remember, and talk about. When you get people talking about, your mission of raising awareness just takes its natural course.

Recently, the UK based skin cancer charity Skcin did this with the issue of skin cancer and tanning. The company created the website www.computertan.com. When you go to their site your immediately hit with a promotional video extolling the virtues of their new program to keep you looking tan all year round by using the back light on your LCD to create UV rays and cook your skin to an unhealthy shade of brown. The site is complete with fake products, and even the promise of an I-Phone app coming soon.

It really hits you with the serious nature of the sight when you click and let the tanning experience begin. It simulates your screen lighting up like a tanning bed and reflecting back at you for a few moments. After that it switches and hits you with the message “Don’t be fooled, UV rays can kill you”. It then shows a serious of skin cancer pictures which will scare off anyone.

Users who registered for a PC tanning session through the Computer Tan website expected to be bathed in safe heated UV rays, but were instead confronted by an alarming collection of facts about skin cancer, and photographs of the disease.

The website is making an impact as in the first 24 hours that the sight was live, over 30,000 people visited and registered their interest in the product. I don’t know how many of these people knew it was a joke, and how many actually thought it was real. Either way though when your getting visitors your having an impact. The mysterious nature of the sight is also sure to have people talking about it.

Skcin is the name for the Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity. The charity was started by her family and named in her honor after she passed away from skin cancer on New Year’s Eve 2005. Together with medical professionals at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, England, her family and friends wanted to establish what is hoped to be the first high profile charitable organization targeting this specific form of cancer in the UK. The principle objective of the charity is to ensure that the danger of over-exposure to the sun is given greater profile with the emphasis on education resulting in the vital early detection of the disease.

I think it is nothing but a success for the people at Skcin. Not only are they getting their message out, but their doing it in a memorable way. For the people that do fall for it, maybe that will open their eyes to how ridiculous the idea of achieving a tan through unnatural means while thinking its safe is.