‘Wild west’: The TikTok tanning ads breaching community standards

A TikTok video celebrating tanning when the “sun is out and the UV is high” has been declared dangerous and a breach of advertising standards in one of several recent decisions censoring companies touting tanning accelerators to young Australians.

Melbourne startup The Fox Tan has fallen foul of national advertising regulator Ad Standards twice since December, first with a TikTok video of a woman lying on a sun lounge and captioned: “When they say it’s time to get out of the sun now but your tan just started to look good”.

A second TikTok video, which was reported to the regulator because it “promotes unsafe tanning which puts people at higher risk of skin cancer”, shows a woman running in her bikini on her way to sunbathe when the “UV is high”.

These social media advertisements have come to the attention of Australia’s advertising regulator .Credit: Instagram, TikTok

Leading advertising figures have called out the sun tanning product industry for lacking social responsibility by using marketing tactics that encourage people to get a tan through overexposure to UV, which can cause cancer and skin damage.

This TikTok video from The Fox Tan glorifies tanning when the sun is out and the UV is high.Credit: TikTok

“The moral and ethical responsibility just seems to be missing,” said Kirsty Muddle, chief executive of Dentsu Creative Australia and New Zealand and a panellist on ABC TV’s advertising show Gruen.

In findings that go to the heart of the advertising strategy of several Australian tanning lotion companies, an Ad Standards community panel found that both videos from The Fox Tan breached section 2.6 of the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) code of ethics regarding health and safety.

“The panel noted that skin cancer affects a very large number of Australians over their lifetime and continues to lead to a high number of deaths every year,” said the decisions on The Fox Tan videos, handed down in December and February.

“The panel considered that the audience for the advertisement is likely to be younger Australians interested in tanning and considered that the messaging in this advertisement was especially dangerous for this group of people.”

The Fox Tan did not respond to the Ad Standards findings, the regulator said in February. This week, the two TikTok videos deemed dangerous remained online, months after the decisions.

This masthead contacted The Fox Tan for comment seeking a response from owners Kelly Euripidou and Olivia Zorzut about why they hadn’t removed the videos, but received no response.

An ad posted by The Fox Tan on Instagram this week for a tanning accelerator the company says can be used to achieve a “deep and dark glow” after sunbathing or using a sunbed.Credit: Instagram

The Fox Tan has been running a promotion for its rapid banana whip tanning accelerator on social media, featuring people dressed up as bananas and an image of a woman’s bikini tan lines, with no mention of the risks of tanning and excessive sun exposure.

“Whether you’re soaking up rays in a sunbed or lounging under the sun, this gem has got you covered!⁠” says one of its posts to its 291,000 followers on Instagram.

Sunbeds or solariums are banned for commercial use in all Australian states because they can cause cancer. The campaign to ban the machines was led by Melbourne woman Clare Oliver, who died aged 26 in 2007 after being diagnosed with an aggressive melanoma following years of solarium use and beach tanning.

Meanwhile, the social media accounts of a number of other tanning oil companies exposed by this masthead for their dangerous advertisements and dubious claims remain filled with dozens of videos and images glamorising suntanning and tan lines, while ignoring or underplaying the risk of tanning.

Clare Oliver. pictured shortly before her death from melanoma, had dreams of becoming a journalist.Credit: Gary Medlicott

Karen Ferry, an executive creative director who is also a Gruen regular, described the new wave of social media advertising as like the “wild west”, avoiding the checks and balances that had been applied in Australian advertising in the past.

“It’s two girls on a laptop in an office somewhere … and they don’t understand why ethically they have to do anything, right, because if they can get away with it, they can get away with it,” she said.

Ferry called upon Facebook and TikTok to remove advertising from their platforms that promotes harmful health behaviours.

In March, another tanning accelerator company, Carroten Australia, was also found in breach of the AANA code of ethics over an Instagram post by reality television star Imogen Ewan, because it was not clear she had been paid for the Instagram video spruiking their tanning gel.

Ewan has almost 300,000 followers on Instagram. Her claim to fame is appearing on the Netflix dating show Too Hot To Handle.

A Carroten Australia spokesperson apologised, and said: “When we were made aware that it was not necessarily distinguishable as advertising in this case, we worked closely with Ad Standards and moved quickly to update the information as soon as possible.”

Advertising content in Australia is largely overseen through a system of self-regulation, and relies on advertisers abiding by the industry code. In response to The Fox Tan’s failure to remove their ads, Ad Standards said it had contacted TikTok requesting confirmation that one of the videos be removed.

“If there is an issue of compliance within a specific industry, we may undertake a targeted education campaign or refer the matter to government,” said the executive director of Ad Standards, Richard Bean.

The Instagram page of Carroten Australia.Credit: Instagram

Bean also encouraged anyone who is concerned that an ad does not align with community standards lodge a complaint via the Ad Standards website.

Regulators have yet to act on other concerns over the conduct of Australian tanning oil companies, including claims, debunked by a cosmetic chemist, that an ingredient from carrot can boost melanin production, the substance in the skin that causes skin pigmentation.

This week, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which says it accepts reports from consumers about possible misleading or false claims, said the issue was a matter for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which regulates goods making therapeutic claims.

“The ACCC is aware that the TGA has advised it is further considering the specific products you have raised,” a spokesperson said.

The TGA said “we have no updates on this matter at this time”.