The indoor tanning industry is about to launch a nationwide campaign to convince Americans that moderate exposure to sunlight not only isn't harmful, but could save 30,000 lives a year by reducing the risk of cancer.
"We're trying to put perspective into something that has lost perspective," said Joseph Levy, executive director of the International Smart Tan Network, a Jackson, Mich.-based group that represents 27,000 indoor tanning facilities throughout North America.
To carry their "sun-is-good" message to the public, the tanning industry is focusing on journalists, particularly health reporters.
Last month, the Smart Tan Network began running the first of six monthly advertisements in Editor & Publisher, a weekly journalism trade publication. It began issuing press releases on PR Newswire. And that will be followed up this spring with an information kit "to every health reporter that we know of in North America," Levy said. (Smart Tan Network, 800/789-6712)