The Skin Cancer Foundation: Behind the sunscreen industry’s Madison Avenue front group
The Skin Cancer Foundation (SCF) is fundamentally a Madison Avenue front group masquerading as a legitimate medical society. Companies like Coppertone, Banana Boat, and Johnson & Johnson rely on it to drum up news stories about the dangers of sun exposure and to suggest that Americans buy sunscreen to protect themselves.
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, between 75 and 80 percent of its budget comes from corporations, most of which sell sun protection products like sunscreen.
The SCF’s modus operandi is simple: Every American they convince to avoid the sun is a potential customer for the sunscreen and cosmetics industry. The SCF is selling a problem while being funded by the solution.
That explains why the SCF is so quick to react to researchers that question the link between UV radiation and cancer. The SCF realizes that the fear of cancer is one of their primary marketing tools, and anyone questioning the sun-cancer link is eating away at the bottom line of the SCF’s corporate backers.
Steal of Recommendation
In 1997, the American Medical Association (AMA) was rocked by a controversy when it offered to license its seal to Sunbeam for $3 million. The controversy exploded and cost the AMA’s CEO his job. Since then, medical societies have been reticent to offer their imprimatur without a rigorous testing and evaluation program.
That hasn’t stopped the Skin Cancer Foundation from offering its Seal of Recommendation to just about any sunscreen or sun protection company willing to pay the price. They even endorse window tints and awnings, umbrellas, tee shirts, and gazebos--all for a price. It is not readily available on the SCF website, but in order to even submit a product to the SCF a company must join their corporate council which starts at $10,000, although many companies “donate” much more.
Dinner, an Award, and a Friendly Article
If the SCF is anything, it’s press-savvy. In fact, it brags that it garnered 521 million media impressions in 2007. That’s a lot of misinformation being spread at the behest of the sunscreen industry.
So how did it garner so much media attention? It might have something to do with the cozy relationship the SCF has developed with many beauty magazines and reporters. In fact, each year the Foundation hosts the “Skin Sense Awards Gala” to honor “select members in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical and publishing industries for their role in helping to educate the public about the dangers of skin cancer and the importance of sun protection.”
This year, O Magazine’s Beauty Director Valerie Monroe and Johnson & Johnson’s Consumer Group Chairwoman Colleen Goggins took home awards (Johnson & Johnson sells Aveeno brand sunscreen). Monroe received the award for “her coverage and promotion of skin health.” That’s a pretty nifty way of rewarding journalists for writing stories that follow the SCF’s party line.
Tropical Hypocrites
What’s good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander when it comes to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
While spending hundreds of thousands of dollars preaching almost total sun-abstinence, the foundation is hosting its annual junket for dermatologists in sunny San Juan, Puerto Rico. The program, which features a pool, golf course, and all things sun worship, doesn’t mention the SCF’s standard advice of staying out of the sun from 10am to 4pm.
Public Disservice Announcements
Many Americans fondly remember Public Service Advertisements (PSAs) like Smokey the Bear or McGruff the Crime Dog, but when you think of PSAs, you probably don’t think of using them to sell a product. But that is exactly what the Skin Cancer Foundation does with its misleading campaign against tanning beds.
Using a whole host of overblown statistics and unfounded scare tactics, they imply that using a tanning bed is tantamount to digging an early grave. Of course their rhetoric doesn’t match the scientific consensus on the matter, but that doesn’t stop them from running their misleading PSA on television.
Medical Society Masquerading
There are more than 15,000 dermatologists in America, yet just 300 of them belong to the Skin Cancer Foundation. That’s less than 2 percent of the nation’s dermatologists.
While the SCF attempts to masquerade as a legitimate medical society like the American Heart Association or the American Medical Association, in 2005 it gave less than 2 percent of its budget—about $33,000—to “research grants.” At the same time it spent more than $300,000 on “public and medical education” efforts, much of which amount to advertising campaigns.
It’s clear from its funding priorities that the SCF isn’t focused on discovering a cure to skin cancer or even researching new prevention opportunities. Instead, it spends the largest line item of its budget on public relations.