Thanks to Johnny Daniels from Geeks Are Sexy for the heads up on this story.

It would seem that even the recent snow wasn’t enough to distract us Brits from our obsession with tanning and sunbathing. Actually, I say ‘our obsession’ but this is one habit that I’ve never really understood thanks to my Indian heritage bestowing upon me an all-year-round tan. That said, I always find it fascinating how many of my friends (mainly women but a surprising amount of men too) will go to extreme lengths to secure bronze and very often near-orange looking skin.

Last week, a new technology that promised workers a tan from their computers was launched via a slick PR campaign involving a video advertisement and sparkly interactive website. ComputerTan* claimed that workers could use the rays from their PC monitors to acquire a “just-come-back-from-holiday-tan-all-year-round” from the comfort of their office desk. The claim was backed up with the following video advert which was produced by the UK advertising agency McCann Erickson:

Gullible (or simply curious) visitors to the ComputerTan website were invited to book their free session and then directed to another page where they were confronted with pictures of people with serious skin tumors caused by exposure to harmful tanning treatments and were given statistics and facts on the condition:

The ComputerTan hoax was commissioned by the UK skin cancer charity Skcin (The Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity) to raise awareness of skin cancer in the UK. The aim of the campaign, is to make British people more aware of the damage that tanning and sunbathing may be doing to their bodies.

In an interview with The Times, Richard Clifford, the co-founder of Skcin, said the campaign was a humorous way to raise awareness of a very serious issue.

“More people die of skin cancer in the UK every year than in Australia,” he said. “It is the most common form of cancer in young adults (15-34) and is largely preventable. The lack of regulation concerning the use of sunbeds is an extremely serious issue… and this campaign highlights the fact that it is high time for a change in the law.”

Hats off to McCann Erickson for creating a campaign which takes people on a real journey, forcing them to confront real and serious health issues in a way that makes them reflect on their own vanity. Whilst the video and the resulting photography are well executed, I really like the other details that made this campaign a real success – such as the ability to ‘hoax a friend’ via email and to be able to share the link on sites like Facebook. 30,000 people visited the website, which means that 30,000 individuals may actually think twice before putting their skin at risk in the name of vanity.

That’s what I call impact. What do you think?

*According to UrbanDictionary, Computer Tan is the phrase given to…

…the pasty white skin condition videogameaholics and computer nerds in general suffer from.

This is caused by their rare appearance into the offline world, with insufficient exposure to UV light these otherwise healthy looking people develop a very pale face & body.

This is not to be used to describe albino’s and red heads as their habits have nothing to do with their pale complexion.

Also not meant to describe un-brown people, stritly to describe extraordinarily pale folk.

Common side affects: over weight due to fast food & cheetos , ultra skinny due to refusing to get off the computer to even eat let alone exercise

Steve: “Hey man, what’d you do this weekend?”

Darwin: “Not much, worked on my computer tan”