By Aisha Dow
A push to ban the advertising of suntanning products is being backed by the Australian Medical Association and sun safety advocates, who fear a new wave of tanning accelerators being pitched to young people online is a return to the “bad old days” of sun-seeking.
A recent investigation by The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and A Current Affair exposed Australian tanning lotion companies using questionable scientific claims and social media videos and images encouraging hours of UV exposure to sell their products.
“It’s like a throwback to the ’80s,” said Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Professor Steve Robson.
“It’s like a time warp to a dangerous era. And it’s doing my head in that this sort of tanning culture and these products are designed to entice people to go back to the bad old days.
“We’ve seen all the misery from skin cancer in this country … I thought we were past this and having these messages go back out again is just really disappointing,” Robson said.
Videos and images on social media celebrate young women heading out into the sun when the UV is very high, glamourise extreme tan lines and show results after two or three hours spent lying in the sun.
A “good tan” is celebrated as the “best accessory”. Other posts declare “no one likes a shady beach” and “this outfit will look better when I’m tanned”.
Last year, a Change.org petition attracted more than 9000 signatures calling for a ban on advertising products that had no sunscreen in them but are designed to be worn in the sun to encourage a tan, citing the proliferation of advertisements on Instagram and TikTok.
Many of the signatories to that petition signed it in honour of family members or friends who had died of melanoma, which kills about 1300 Australians each year.
“My husband died three years ago of melanoma,” wrote one signatory. “He was 48, fit and strong. It killed him in three quick years, despite having every treatment possible. Tanning is never OK, and we need to send this message out loud and clear.”
Bronzed, slim and young: This vintage ad for Reef tanning oil published in the early 1980s in Australia has plenty of similarities with modern social media ads.
Robson said the Australian Medical Association would support any government regulation that puts the kibosh on tanning product advertising, arguing it was patently dangerous to public health and preyed on people’s vulnerabilities and insecurities.
It’s a bid that has the support of Pauline Ryan, a recent survivor of metastatic melanoma and a clinical trial participant. Ryan’s cancer was first identified in December 2022, when she was 37 weeks pregnant with her second child.
The 38-year-old had been traumatised by her cancer experience, which she said underlined the potential deadly mistake of equating a tan with health and beauty. Ads spruiking tanning oils are hard for her to watch.
“We’ve got ... vulnerable young people who might be susceptible to this advertising, and I would genuinely hate for people to be in my shoes.
Pauline Ryan bears physical and mental scares from her cancer, removed from her neck.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“I would never have thought I would be a young mother going through cancer treatment.
“I wasn’t someone that actively tried to tan. When I was a teenager, I had tried a few times, but I just didn’t have the skin tone for it. But I do look back and regret. I know those moments where I just haven’t been sun smart.”
The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Nicole Higgins, is also concerned about the impact of social media influencers on the behaviour of young people.
Pauline Ryan during her treatment for melanoma.
She said her own teenage daughters, despite being educated on sun safety, were picking up worrying tanning techniques and ideas around beauty standards online. “Now they’re using beer, Reef [oil], you name it,” she said.
“We’ve got the biggest users of social media being bombarded by big business with images of what they should look like. And they’re at an age where they haven’t necessarily developed the critical thinking or the understanding to appreciate why these images are on their phone.”
Meta, owner of Instagram, said it would not comment on the company’s policy of running ads for suntanning products or its approach to images and videos that glamorise tans and tan lines. Several paid Instagram posts claim to show off suntanning results after hours in the sun.
TikTok, in contrast, said it prohibits paid ads for tan boosters and accelerators. A spokesperson said the company actively removes concerning and dangerous content associated with hashtags such as #sunburnchallenge and #tanning. However, if you search the term “tanning” on TikTok, the top videos are still promoting sun exposure.
A sponsored social media advertisement from The Fox Tan celebrates tanning results after hours in the sun.Credit: Meta
One of those videos, viewed almost 2 million times, shows an influencer’s three-hour tanning routine, where she applies sunscreen to her face with a low sun protection factor before heading out into the sun.
“I know I’m probably supposed to use a higher SPF, because I don’t want to get wrinkles,” she says, in a mocking tone. “Guess what? We are all going to get wrinkly one day and I’d rather be tan.”
The Albanese government recently invested $7.3 million in a new campaign with Cancer Council Australia to “End the Trend” of suntanning among young people, citing statistics showing almost three quarters of young Australians think they’re unlikely to get skin cancer.
But the federal government has so far not acted on calls to ban ads of suntanning products.
“Businesses must make sure that statements on social media are true, accurate and can be proven. They cannot make false or misleading claims on social media,” said a spokesperson for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in response to a question about a potential ban.
“I encourage anyone concerned that advertising may be false, misleading or harmful to make a report to the advertising regulator – Ad Standards – or the consumer watchdog, the ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission].”
Deakin University professor of consumer behaviour Paul Harrison said there would be no easy one-stop solution when it came to discouraging Australians from tanning their skin.
“Australians have this very tense relationship with tanning. We know that we shouldn’t get tanned, but we also know that it is part of our identity. The thing about marketing is that it doesn’t really care about what’s right and what’s wrong.”
with Georgia Westgarth
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