University News Article Analysis: MRKT20052 Term 1 Report

This report provides an analysis of a news article concerning the alarming rise in sun-burn cases in Victoria, Australia, and its implications within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). The report identifies the primary SDG as protecting young life, analyzing stakeholders such as citizens, hospitals, the Cancer Council, parents, and skincare brands. It highlights potential marketing issues, including how skincare brands capitalized on the crisis to promote sunscreen products and the success of the "Slip, Slop, Slap" campaign. The report reflects on the importance of media in raising awareness and the effectiveness of advertising in promoting sun-protective behaviors, referencing relevant studies and concluding that while marketing techniques were powerful, the social cause of awareness was not overlooked. The report references the "Call Time on Melanoma" social media initiative and the overall impact of the media in crisis situations.

Running head: NEWS ARTICLE ANALYSIS
News article analysis
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NEWS ARTICLE ANALYSIS
The United Nation Member States have adopted certain sustainable development
Goals(SDGs) which are also known as Global Goals directed towards the betterment of
people’s life, the environment and the planet as a whole. It ensures to bring in peace and
prosperity by 2030 (Nilsson, Griggs & Visbeck, 2016). The UNSDGS are integrated in nature
which means that the member nation must realise that the impact of one action is directly
related to the effect it will cast upon others, in other words it ensures to sustain harmony and
achieve a balance between human and environment.
Concentration on the life threatening issue of extreme Sun-Burn cases especially for
young skin in Victoria, Australia and how devastatingly the number has increased in the last
one year span (2018-2019) has lead to a panic cry among the member states.
1) UNSDGs as discussed in the news article
In this news article the most primary sustainable development Goal that has been
identified is protecting young life and standing strong to its gaol which pledges on, “Leave
No One Behind” (Biermann, Kanie & Kim, 2017). The Cancer Council's National Sun
Protection Survey developed a SunSmart programme to raise general awareness among
parents to take special care of children aged between 5 to 19 years as they are most
vulnerable to the harmful UV rays which might increase the changes of skin cancer apart
from severe sun burn.
2) Identification of the stakeholders:
The most important stakeholders of this news article are the citizens of Victoria,
Australia who have been affected by this threatening call of nature. Apart from them the
organisations who have been working behind to control this emergency situation like the
hospitals, the Cancer Council Research Centre staffs and other medical service staffs who are
working day in and day out to save lives in the emergency wards (Saridi, Bourdaki &

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Rekleiti, 2014). Along with them, another important stakeholder are the parent fraternity who
needs to be made aware about the ways to protect their children through usage of proper
sunscreen, doing cold compress, drinking plenty of water to keep skin hydrated and
altogether protecting the young generation from the harmful impact of UV Rays. Though
eventually the above mentioned people could only be considered as the stakeholders, with the
passage of time and further developments it was observed that the skincare brands, the beauty
brands become important stakeholders who did make the best use of the crisis to advertise the
range of products that had to offer to the global citizens who where in a dire need of the same
(McLeod, et al. 2017).
3) Potential marketing issues brought to light:
While on one hand the alarming issue raised enough panic among the citizens on the
other hand with the help of media skin care brands en cashed on this emergency situation and
paved their way to increase the sale of suns creams among the customers. The slip slop slap
video campaign by SunSmart gained a new recognition among the viewers where sunscreen
was shown as a part of everyday skincare routine for the citizens to protect themselves from
the growing terror of skin burn (Kang, & Walsh-Childers, 2014). This was also treated as are
remarkable marketing technique by the skincare brands as the Australian sunscreen market
saw a huge rise in their profit generation. The campaign became so popular, the message was
so well received by the audience that a new term came into existence concerning the skincare
market which was “Skinscreen”- a rare combination of skincare where sunscreen was the
most essential component. The products were marketed in all new packaging, texture,
appealing fragrance to be used every day by women under makeup. Soon beauty influencers
went crazy to advertise more of these products by highlighting varied other factors like its
anti-ageing benefits and removal of unwanted pigmentation to help achieve the perfect
spotless skin (Scully, et al. 2014).Hence it can be very well understood that the marketing

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technique behind the social message was quite powerful. However one cannot claim that
between all these marketing techniques the social cause or the main reason to raise the
awareness was overlooked. The social media initiative known as “Call Time on Melanoma”
("Sustainable Development Goals | UNDP", 2020) continued to spread the necessary social
message on awareness, skin cancer and harmful impacts of UV rays on humans.
4) Personal reflection on the stated issue:
There is no doubt about the fact that the sun-burn emergency was a very critical
health related crisis which demanded immediate attention on the part of the medical board the
government and most importantly the citizens. Younger mass that is the children were most
exposed and threatened by this vulnerability and in such a crisis situation raising mass
awareness through media is very significant. The awareness programmes related to increased
usage of sunscreen could not be completely stated as a commercial move but did help in
controlling the increase number of sun-burn cases in a period of 12 months (Dixon, et al.
2014). The advertising messages proved to be quite useful in lower the sunburn rates by
inducing sun protective behaviours among the population. Researchers also state that such
campaigns brought in hug returns of investment by lowering the treatment costs and
altogether reducing the rate of such emergency, death and economic burden of skin care
(Berwick, et al. 2014).
As a responsible citizen I personally feel that since the age of civilisation mankind has
been made aware regarding varied issues through media. There is no doubt on the fact that at
times media seems to unnecessarily sensationalise a news to en-cash upon it and sell it to the
mass but concentrating on the bigger picture one cannot ignore the power of media when it
comes to creating mass awareness (Buller, et al. 2015) specially during an emergency or any
crisis situation. Especially when the concerned crisis surrounds the younger generation or the

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parents of the younger lot, they are expected to be much more exposed to the media and are
rationale to judge what is important and what is not. “Burning issue for young skin” no doubt
deserves to be a front page publication because of its proximity and prominence.
References:
Berwick, M., Reiner, A. S., Paine, S., Armstrong, B. K., Kricker, A., Goumas, C., ...
& Busam, K. (2014). Sun exposure and melanoma survival: a GEM study. Cancer
Epidemiology and Prevention Biomarkers, 23(10), 2145-2152.
Biermann, F., Kanie, N., & Kim, R. E. (2017). Global governance by goal-setting: the
novel approach of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Current Opinion in
Environmental Sustainability, 26, 26-31.
Buller, D. B., Berwick, M., Lantz, K., Buller, M. K., Shane, J., Kane, I., & Liu, X.
(2015). Smartphone mobile application delivering personalized, real-time sun protection
advice: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA dermatology, 151(5), 497-504.
Dixon, H., Warne, C., Scully, M., Dobbinson, S., & Wakefield, M. (2014). Agenda-
setting effects of sun-related news coverage on public attitudes and beliefs about tanning and
skin cancer. Health communication, 29(2), 173-181.
Kang, H., & Walsh-Childers, K. (2014). Sun-care product advertising in parenting
magazines: what information does it provide about sun protection?. Health communication,
29(1), 1-12.
McLeod, G. F., Reeder, A. I., Gray, A. R., & McGee, R. (2017). Unintended sunburn:
a potential target for sun protection messages. Journal of skin cancer, 2017.
Nilsson, M., Griggs, D., & Visbeck, M. (2016). Policy: map the interactions between
Sustainable Development Goals. Nature, 534(7607), 320-322.

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Saridi, M., Bourdaki, E., & Rekleiti, M. (2014). Young students' knowledge about sun
protection and its relation with sunburn incidence. A systematic review. Health Science
Journal, 8(1), 4.
Scully, M., Makin, J., Maloney, S., & Wakefield, M. (2014). Changes in coverage of
sun protection in the news: threats and opportunities from emerging issues. Health Education
Research, 29(3), 378-387.
Sustainable Development Goals | UNDP. (2020). Retrieved 27 March 2020, from
https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html

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References: