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New Ads Want You To Fry
March 27, 2008
The Indoor Tanning Association wants you to get over those pesky skin cancer fears and start frying yourself again.
To that end, the group is sponsoring national television commercials and put a full-page ad in the New York Times saying that not only will tanning salons not give you cancer… they’re downright good for you, too.
Seriously. The ad actually says, “Go get a tan. Your body will thank you.”
The group claims the link between baking yourself in the sun and skin cancer is based on “junk science.”
Yale Medical School’s David Leffell disagrees. “The ad misrepresents scientific fact. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun and from the artificial bulbs that are used in the tanning parlors can lead to skin cancer.”
More than a million Americans develop skin cancer every year in the United States. Previous studies have shown that people who frequent tanning salons before the age of 35 are 75 percent more likely to get melanoma. [ABC]
You also have a 1 in 5 chance of getting skin cancer in your lifetime. [WRIC Channel 8]
Still looking for that deep, dark tan? Blame fashion icon Coco Chanel, who set off the tanning craze in 1923 after she accidentally got a suntan while cruising around the Riviera on the Duke of Westminster’s yacht. Instantly, the standard of fashion went from white, porcelain skin to a deep, dark tan. [The Week Magazine]
By the way, did you know a plain white t-shirt only has an SPF of 3? Now you do.
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