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.

Indoor tanning is an epidemic. Despite the well-documented links between tanning beds and deadly cancers, one million American young adults tan every day.

Information isn’t the problem; hundreds of major media outlets covered the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2014 Call-to-Action that outlined the dangers of indoor tanning. At the very least, most people accept that UV radiation from tanning beds is harmful, and yet young people continue to tan at alarming rates.

It was evident that traditional approaches weren’t enough. To truly to make a long-lasting, life-changing impact, it was important to make this issue personal and hard-hitting.

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 solution—Free Killer Tan.

To make the dangers of indoor tanning real, Mollie’s Fund created a fake indoor tanning salon and offered customers a Free Killer Tan. Once inside, these unsuspecting tanners discovered they were actually attending their own funeral—complete with a tanning-bed casket and an R.I.P. poster with their picture on it.

This experience was filmed and shared across social media, ultimately expanding our reach to over 120 million people—and causing many young people to pledge to their friends, family, and other social connections “I’ll never tan again.”

The goal was to reach 100,000 18-24 year-old women before Spring Break holiday. During this period many young women get their first indoor tan—a “base”—in anticipation of their trip.

We focused in on this key demographic because large-scale independent studies have found them the most likely to tan, and melanoma is the second most common cancer for this group. We wanted to intervene before serious tanning damage was done—and hopefully avoid it completely.

Our mock tanning salon opened in late November, at the beginning of indoor tanning season.

We recruited would-be tanners with a street team and online. Once inside our tanning salon, 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 (the time before Spring Break).

A press release—announcing the launch of our video on Youtube and a microsite—targeted key online social news outlets. A targeted post on Facebook targeting 18-24 year old women invited them to watch the video and join the conversation. On Twitter, we connected with sororities and fraternities, resulting in demonstrations and live events around the country to ban tanning beds from campuses.

Finally, we worked with an artist to place an amazing tanning-bed coffin at the heart of our print materials.

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

• 120 million+ overall media impressions

• 1 million Youtube video views

o 90% were in our key demographic

• 1 million Facebook video views

o 95% were in our key demographic

o 10 million impressions

o 9.5k likes

o 7.6k shares

o 2k comments

• 25K unique visitors to FreeKillerTan.com

• 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!”

And thousands more...

Our strategy was based on a 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.

It was clear that hammering our key demographic with facts was of limited value. We needed to directly confront young women with the deadly consequences of tanning and appeal to them on a deeply personal and emotional level.

We then planned to capture everything on hidden camera and share it online and in key social networks popular with young women. Here, our message would be amplified on a peer-to-peer basis, making it all the more credible.

Indoor tanning is an epidemic. Despite the well-documented links between tanning beds and deadly cancers, one million American young adults tan every day.

Information isn’t the problem; hundreds of major media outlets covered the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2014 Call-to-Action that outlined the dangers of indoor tanning. At the very least, most people accept that UV radiation from tanning beds is harmful, and yet young people continue to tan at alarming rates.

It was evident that traditional approaches weren’t enough. To truly to make a long-lasting, life-changing impact, it was important to make this issue personal and hard-hitting.