It’s a common misconception in Ireland that because the sun isn’t always shining, there’s no need to protect your skin.

This misconception, combined with the fact that the most common skin type in Ireland has the lowest possible UV resistance, has resulted in Ireland having the highest skin cancer death rate in Europe - mostly Irish men. The good news is, it’s one of the most preventable cancers and there’s an easy fix - wearing sunscreen. The hard part is getting men to consider it, let alone make it a summer ritual.

So the Marie Keating Foundation, one of the leading voices in Ireland for cancer prevention, decided to hack another ritual to help - the summer barbecue.

As part of our ‘Don’t Cook Yourself’ campaign, we launched a brand new, must-have barbecue sauce onto the market with one secret ingredient.

100% sunscreen.

Ireland’s skin cancer death rate is higher than that of Australia - especially amongst men. We launched a product for the Marie Keating Foundation specifically to raise awareness - particularly amongst men - online and at point-of-sale. Summer means BBQs. The ‘Don’t Cook Yourself’ campaign’s product is that most essential of BBQ sauces: sunscreen. We branded it as the most essential sauce for the perfect BBQ. The sunscreen ‘sauce’, along with anti-cooking instructions stickers and leaflets, were sold beside popular BBQ items in Irish butchers and placed in home delivered DIY BBQ boxes as free sunscreen. Backed by endorsements from TV chefs and influencers, the sunscreen sold out in record time, raising awareness and saving Irish skins one barbie at a time!

Irish people have never taken the sun seriously, even though we have the highest death rate from skin cancer in Europe. Irish men in particular don’t recognise the danger of the Irish sun or know what to do to mitigate the risks.The solution to a very preventable cancer was easy, but we knew starting a new ritual was hard, especially for this audience. We also knew, due to COVID, people would be spending a lot more time in their back gardens and felt a “traditional” campaign may not land our message when and where it needs to land. We needed to link the problem and solution to a key point where the outdoors was front-of-mind: and we chose BBQs.

During the summer, people migrate through the country and their media habits change. The campaign ran locally, nationally and socially where people sought BBQ videos online (youtube, instagram, facebook), bought ingredients for their BBQ - and at BBQs themselves. It ran during the key BBQ season: mid-July through mid-August to hit people wherever/whenever they were breaking out the steaks. The campaign was picked up locally and internationally. This was an efficient way of message and media colliding, helping meet our objective of linking the Irish sun to skin cancer.

Launched Ireland’s 1st National Skin Cancer Prevention Plan

Reached1.1m + 66% YOY

Audience exposed at optimal rate of ~2 times/week

Highest recall: men 25-44, key audience

306 Unique Authors

6.1K Avg Reach for #DontCookYourself

Awareness +42% on pre-campaign.

Cut through COVID noise, by challenging perception of the Irish sun in a unique, engaging, relevant way