Mollie’s Fund had a simple objective: prevent 18-24 year-old women from getting their first indoor tan, because just one tanning session increases the risk of deadly melanoma by 20%.

Our key insight: many young women feel like they are indestructible and prioritize aesthetics over the distant risk of cancer. Equally as important, people are more open to behavior change when their decision is informed by personal experience or comes directly from a friend or other trusted source.

Within 2 weeks, the online video was viewed in every country in the world.

• 120 million+ overall media impressions

• 2 million+ video views across Youtube and Facebook

o >95% were in our 18-24 key demographic

• Hundreds of TV stations (national and local) and online social news outlets covered the story

• University students petitioned to ban indoor tanning on campus

• Thousands of 18-24 year olds publicly proclaimed that they will never tan again:

“Watch this because I care about you.”

“I’ll never tan again.”

“What an INCREDIBLE MESSAGE. I got chills.”

“I’m going to start spray tanning.”

“Stop tanning, please!”.

Our mock tanning salon opened on the coldest day of November, at the beginning of indoor tanning season.

We recruited would-be tanners with a street team and online. Once inside our tanning salon, these unsuspecting patrons discovered they were actually attending their own funeral—complete with a tanning-bed casket. Everyone’s experiences were captured on hidden camera and shared online with the world, starting February 3rd (to coincide with the lead up to Spring Break).

The target audience for Free Killer Tan was women aged 18-24. Large-scale independent studies have found that this demographic is the most likely to tan, and melanoma is the second most common cancer for this group.

Based on the incidence of tanning within this group and their awareness of its risks, it was evident that traditional approaches weren't enough. To truly to make a long-lasting, life-changing impact, it was important to make the dangers personal and hard-hitting.

Surprising people with a live, personalized experience allowed us to communicate on a deep, more resonant level, before their defenses were raised.