Dark Side of Tanning
Studies suggest that Australia is faced with the highest number of people who have melanoma in the world (Perez et al., 2015). Melanoma is a form of skin cancer that occurs due to over-exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun. This form of cancer has been recorded to be present in mostly 15-29-year-olds. The findings of a research study by Perez et al. (2015) showed that the above-mentioned age group is the one that is most affected. The reasons are quite clear as to why these young people are the ones that are most affected. They argue that young people between the ages of 15-29 are vulnerable to following the trending fashion perspectives on popular media (Perez et al., 2015). It is, however, unlucky for them that the media was constantly represented tanning as a trendy fashion activity. Therefore, younger people adopt what is presented in media advertisements and include them in the activities of their lives. However, the media was for a long time spreading a myth about the health benefits of tanning (Perez et al., 2015). Tanning is often associated with making one’s skin look refreshed and better than it was before. However, this is a popular myth that research with no significant scientific proof, which has prompted research on ways of preventing skin cancer associated with unhealthy tanning practices.
Dark Side of Tanning is a skin cancer prevention mass media campaign that has been implemented in countries located in the world. Ideally, this prevention campaign aimed at creating a full-blown awareness on the issue of tanning. As opposed to popular belief, tanning is an unhealthy activity that leads to the involved individual performing it getting skin cancer. The Dark Side of Tanning came out to discourage the affected population to stop carrying out the practice for health benefits. However, the campaign took various approaches that were deemed necessary by professionals to influence the prevention of skin cancer by abolishing tanning. However, some of the aspects of the Dark Side of Tanning campaign have been successful while others have not (Doran, 2016). As such, the success and the failure of each aspect is often attributed to the different mechanisms through which mass media is employed to convey the information contained. This paper analyzes the Dark Side of Tanning campaign and identifies the reasons that caused a given approach to the campaign become successful or failing to accomplish its purposes.
The Dark Side of Tanning campaign utilizes three health theories in guiding the communication of the intended message. The three health theories that were employed include medicalization, healthism and pre-emptive model of risk (Taylor, 2015). These three health theories were identified to be at the core of the communication processes and activities of the campaign. Ideally, they defined how the information would be conveyed to the masses to guarantee its success. However, some of the theories proved to be better than the others due to the underlying methods through, which they communicate information relevant to the campaign. This paper particularly seeks to analyze the use of three health theories and measure their effectiveness in communicating the intended message of the campaign to the public and society.
The Nature of the Campaign
The campaign was made up many aspects: Each played a significant role that contributed to the eventual success of the campaign. Ideally, the campaign involved a lot of activities, documents, images, and videos that were used for the education of the masses. The implemented aspects of the campaign included mainly images and video (Cancer Institute NSW, 2008). The videos depicted how cancer cells get created when one is exposed to the rays of the sun. The first video a girl on the beach while the second one shows a group of boys playing soccer, where one of the boys has no shirt or T-shirt on and plays half naked in the sun (Cancer Institute NSW, 2017). The images were mainly in the form of poster and billboards that were placed at strategic places and location. There were even posters for bus shelters and others for bus sides. Ideally, these were some of the activities that were involved in the communicating the message of the campaign to the public and society.
Medicalization
The Dark Side of Tanning involved a lot of people. Ideally, the most relevant information on the campaign was gathered from some medical professionals conversant with the issue of skin cancer, particularly on tanning practices. Moreover, a lot of research studies were deemed helpful in constructing the campaign that was created for the purposes of educating the masses on the unhealthy attributes of tanning. However, throughout the world, medicalization has been viewed with suspicious motives as pharmaceutical companies and health professionals have used it to create a point of advantage (Greenman & Jones, 2010). The advantage is usually increased sales and profits. By definition, medicalization involves the use of knowledge of medicine to propose different approaches to running our lives. It has been evident that populations over the world can be described through the various making up of people that come about as a result of medical knowledge (Downward & Dawson, 2016). It is uncommon to find a given population that is not acutely defined by the criteria of illness and health, normality, and pathology.
Consequently, some sections of a population may be more informed than others making them more made up medically than their counterparts. For instance, scientific knowledge that is attributed to be medical has a significant influence on the way women, wealthier people and older people run their lives (Busfield, 2010). Ideally, the wealthy people have more money and time at their disposal to worry about their longevity in life. Women are also very conscious about their health as it becomes a mirror through which one becomes accepted in the society as being beautiful in a whole rounded manner. Furthermore, adults become more involved with their health as they become more aware of the fact that they are aging and they need to prevent health issues that will make them age faster or not able to live up to old age (Busfield, 2010). Therefore, as seen, medical expertise, medical knowledge, and medical practices play different roles in different demographics.
The Dark Side of Tanning campaign employed medicalization to create an informative approach that would appeal to the affected demographic (Doran, 2016). However, medicalization cannot be viewed as the most superior approach or even a successful one in achieving the purpose of the campaign. The population most affected by tanning ranges between the ages of 15-29. This population is the most vulnerable as they give in to social trends in a manner that questions the presence of critical thinking and sound decision making. In view of this, the issue of tanning became a fashion craze, and the most people adopted the popular practice. However, when medical experts discovered that the popular myth about tanning is actually false, the youth did not give in to the information. This was, in fact, an issue of medicalization working against itself (Dark Side of Tanning campaign, 2017).
The fundamental aspect to consider is that tanning was first portrayed by the media to be a healthy practice. This was catapulted by the fact that most companies wanted to make money off selling tanning to this vulnerable portion of the population. However, after research conducted showed that tanning was the leading cause of skin cancer, the same mass media were employed to convey this piece of information. The illustration above indicates that medicalization was at first used for the wrong motive which was later employed to discredit the precious misconception about tanning (Busfield, 2010). Considering the double effect that medicalization was employed to impact on the issue of tanning, its success in achieving the latter is not guaranteed. In the same respect, medicalization has lost its significance in the lives of a given population when used in such a reciprocated manner. Therefore, medicalization as an approach employed in the Dark Side of Tanning has faced criticism that has proved its lack of significant influence in impacting the affected population about the issue of tanning is an unhealthy practice.
Healthism
Healthism is defined as the approach through which people are impacted by the information that tends to effect change in their lives (Busfield, 2010). Most probably, the changes that are bound to take place after successful influence is the public will lead healthier lives. The Dark Side of Tanning employed the perspective of healthism in running the campaign (Dark Side of Tanning campaign, 2017). The government sees it fit that the population should well inform about the unhealthy and healthy practices in life. Ideally, the underlying framework that makes healthism a successful approach is in the way information is channeled. Not the actual channeling, but the informative aspect of channeling the information. For instance, healthism is an aspect that is constantly introduced throughout the whole campaign. The imparting of information to change the behavior of an individual to enable their lives to be healthier is how healthism was achieved on the Dark Side of Tanning campaign. The healthism approach was successfully employed in the following ways.
First, the Dark Side of Tanning campaign aimed at creating more awareness about the unhealthiness of tanning. By employing healthism, the campaign was able to define a given activity as unhealthy and conveyed the information to the population. This was one of the ways in which healthism was portrayed in the campaign (Downward & Dawson, 2016). Secondly, healthism strives upon creating new ways to solve old problems or creating new information that creates a better understanding of old problems. This is sufficiently illustrated by the issue of tanning. Historically, tanning has been portrayed as a healthy activity that is fun and in itself a fashion statement. This has been the myth about tanning for a long time. History shows that tanning was viewed as a great exercise as it made the skin become more refreshed due to excessive access to vitamin D. On the same note, companies took advantage of the situation to create a situation that allowed the sale of their products known as tanning lotions (Greenman & Jones, 2010). Apparently, these medicinal lotions were portrayed to be effective in preventing the ultraviolet radiation from the sun from negatively affecting an individual’s skin. However, the information provided was deemed to be irrelevant and deceptive because tanning was potentially a cause for skin cancer. The new information that was discovered mad people understand the health effects of tanning a little better. Therefore, tanning was later a discouraged practice unlike how it was highly encouraged a few decades ago.
The above-mentioned attributes of healthism illustrate its significance in influencing the change of behavior concerning tanning practices. Ideally, the campaign portrayed tanning as an unhealthy practice. By running the campaign, the government has made the population aware of the health problems that are bound to arise if one decides to uptake tanning as a regular exercise in their lives. The public is, therefore, made more responsible for their health if they are made sufficiently aware of the benefits and demerits of their behavior. Therefore, the conveying of information that is recent and tries to understand old problems from a new perspective creates an effective way of educating the masses about the various aspects of a given practice that tends to make people less healthy or more responsible for their health by changing their behavior.
Pre-Emptive Model of Risk
The pre-emptive model of risk takes quite a different approach than the above mentioned approaches employed on the Dark Side of Tanning campaign. The basis of a pre-emptive model of risk is illustrated in the following steps. First, the government takes it upon themselves to guide the population the healthiness of a given practice (Ayo, 2012). The information is conveyed through various types of mass media for the sole purpose of education and influencing change. However, in this application, the most influential aspect is the communication of the risk bound to be encountered if the population fails to uphold the information and use it to the best of their advantage. Secondly, the government does not seek to stand over the shoulder of the population by placing policies that govern behavior that has a potentially negative effect on the health of the population (Ayo, 2012). The government, therefore, decides to inform the public of the risks to be undertaken when an individual does not heed the warning provided in the Dark Side of Tanning campaign. The risks are portrayed as the potential situations or circumstances that can happen long into the future after such a practice has been conducted on a regular basis (Diprose, 2014). The risk may include the costs of dealing with the issues arising from the effect of tanning that may use up most of the resources of the government and the society.
However, the pre-emptive model or risk does not stand well with the youth that is mainly participating in the practice of tanning. For the young generation between the ages of 15-29, their perspective on financial costs and other responsibilities arising from health issues born out of unhealthy life practices has not yet gained any meaning (Ayo, 2012). Most of the people between the given age group have not yet experienced life as adults and are therefore oblivious to the long-term negative effects of tanning that may affect them, their family and the society as a whole. Moreover, it is prudent to note that youth has no long-term plan for their lives, after all, they have just been thrown into the realm of young adulthood in which they can bask in the glory of their youth and enjoy life. Therefore, the information that the government conveys to the youth does not seem relevant to them at the moment (Ayo, 2012). It is for the above reasons that the pre-emptive model of risk does not provide a successful approach to influencing the youth to uphold healthier practices that have positive long-term benefits that might make their future better.
Conclusion
The Dark Side of Tanning campaign involved three health theories that were used in communicating the message of the campaign. Moreover, the campaign involved various activities, images, and documents, audio, and video that were used in communicating relevant information to the public and society. However, the public and society did not respond perfectly to the implemented health theories. There were underlying issues that promoted the success of some of the theories while others facilitated the ineffectiveness of the theories. Therefore, the culmination of what was involved in the entire Dark Side of tanning campaign was significantly impacted by the level of effectiveness of the three theories in conveying the intended message of the campaign.
References
Ayo, N. (March 01, 2012). Understanding health promotion in a neoliberal climate and the making of health conscious citizens. Critical Public Health, 22 (1), 99-105.
Busfield, J. (March 01, 2010). A pill for every ill: Explaining the expansion in medicine use. Social Science & Medicine, 70 (6), 934-941.
Cancer Institute NSW. (2008). Dark side of tanning: The facts. Alexandria, N.S.W: Cancer Institute NSW.
Cancer Institute NSW. (2017). Boys Playing footy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wAVIvbQ4n8 Accessed [November 2017].
Cancer Institute NSW. (2017). There is nothing healthy about a tan. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF40KBHFpn4 Accessed [November 2017].
Dark Side of Tanning campaign. (2017). Cancer Institute NSW. Retrieved from https://www.cancerinstitute.org.au/how-we-help/cancer-prevention/skin-cancer-prevention/campaigns/Dark-Side-of-Tanning-campaign Accessed [4 November 2017].
Diprose, R. (December 17, 2014). Biopolitical technologies of prevention. Health Sociology Review, 17, 2, 141-150.
Doran, C. M., Ling, R., Byrnes, J., Crane, M., Shakeshaft, A. P., Searles, A., & Perez, D. (January 01, 2016). Benefit Cost Analysis of Three Skin Cancer Public Education Mass-Media Campaigns Implemented in New South Wales, Australia. Plos One, 11, 1.)
Downward, P., & Dawson, P. (March 05, 2016). Is it Pleasure or Health from Leisure that We Benefit from Most? An Analysis of Well-Being Alternatives and Implications for Policy. Social Indicators Research, 126 (1), 443-465.
Greenman, J., & Jones, D. A. (January 01, 2010). Comparison of advertising strategies between the indoor tanning and tobacco industries. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 62, 4.)
Perez, D., Kite, J., Dunlop, S. M., Cust, A. E., Goumas, C., Cotter, T., … & Bauman, A. (2015). Exposure to the ‘Dark Side of Tanning’skin cancer prevention mass media campaign and its association with tanning attitudes in New South Wales, Australia. Health education research, 30(2), 336-346.
Taylor, J.-S. (February 19, 2015). The dark side of sunlight and melanoma. Science, 347, 6224, 824.
