'I still know every word': Aussies are all traumatised by the same 2000s ad

17 years later, the message still resonates with those who remember it, with some even calling for it to "make a comeback." 

There’s only one early 2000s ad that’s more iconic than the ‘You wouldn’t steal a car’ piracy ad that played before videos you hired from Blockbuster. 

And that’s the Cancer Council’s public health campaign ad about melanoma.

Remember? The ‘There’s nothing healthy about a tan’ one.

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Image: Cancer Council

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The 'traumatising' ad from the 2000s

Part of the Cancer Council’s ‘Dark Side of Tanning Campaign’ launched in 2007, the ad aimed to communicate the dangers of melanoma, a message that, years later, continues to resonate with those who remember it.

Dermal clinician Madeleine O'Brien recently shared the commercial on TikTok, triggering thousands of Aussies who remember its chilling slogans and horrifying images of cancer spreading throughout a body. 

The ad showed a woman lying on the beach in a bikini without sunscreen. Using CGI technology, viewers were shown a graphic representation of melanoma cells invading the bloodstream. 

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The narrator then warns, “Tanning is skin cells in trauma.”

“[Cancer Council Australia] absolutely popped off with this campaign! It haunts me. Maybe a little too terrifying for 10-year-old me to see but hey, look at me now preaching sun safety. It clearly worked,' she captioned the clip. 

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"I still know this off by heart 24 years later"

The video prompted a wave of nostalgic yet somewhat traumatised reactions from Aussies who grew up during the same era. 

“Such a good ad,” a top comment read.

Another person replied: “I feel like this ad needs to make a comeback.”

“NUH UH. I AM NEVER STEPPING FOOT OUTSIDE AGAIN!” a third claimed. 

Image: Cancer Council

Then this woman said her friend group regularly used lines from the ad: “Yep, my friends and I all still say, ‘tanning is skin cells in trauma!’ to each other whenever someone doesn't properly slip slop slap.”

“This has been engraved into my head for years,” another admitted. 

And someone else shared, “This is the ad that made me serious about SPF.”

“I still know this off by heart all these years later,” a different Aussie revealed. “Every single word.”

Originally published as 'I still know every word': Aussies are all traumatised by the same 2000s ad