30ml aluminium refill bottle, for portable protection on the move if you don't want to carry a larger product. Just fill and go.
HOW TO USE IT
If you think you might need a top-up when out and about or just want to travel light, this aluminium refill bottle is the perfect answer. Simply decant your favourite LifeJacket product into it before heading out and stick it in your bag or pocket.
OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF
100% Aluminium
Dishwasher friendly
Long lasting and zero plastic
30ml capacity
Bundle up and save. Get up to 15% OFF.
Bundle up and save. Get up to 15% OFF.
Spend: £32+ get 5% OFF | £45+ get 10% OFF | £65+ get 15% OFF
Spend: £32+ get 5% OFF | £45+ get 10% OFF | £65+ get 15% OFF
Australia is often referred to as the ultraviolet (UV) capital of the world.
Each year, Australia receives heavy doses of UV light from the sun. Broadly, this is down to three things:
The country’s proximity to the equator;
Its position in the Southern Hemisphere putting it closer to the sun during summertime compared to other geographies; and
The fact it has a high proportion of clear, blue-sky days.
In combination, that’s a pretty lethal UV cocktail! And as we know, mainstream science now accepts there’s a connection between skin cancer and UV exposure.
Because Australia is synonymous with sunshine and outside living, we thought it made for an interesting case study not least because skin protection is culturally front of mind and has been for far longer than it has in Europe.
Melanoma in Australia
To give you a sense of things, melanoma frequency in Australia was measured at 58 new cases per 100,000 people in 2018 according to World Health Organisation (WHO) data.
By comparison, the same measure was 22 cases per 100,000 people in the United States.
So, melanoma is 2.6x more common in Australia than in the USA.
That’s what makes melanoma the 4th most common cancer in Australia, accounting for 7% of all cancers. In the USA, melanoma is the 7th most common cancer, accounting for 3% of all cancers.
You can quickly see how skin cancer became, and still is, a major public health concern for the Australian government.
Slip, slop, slap
In 1981, the government's 'SunSmart' campaign hit Australian TV screens. An animated, board-shorts-wearing seagull called Sid, extolled the virtues of “Slip! Slop! Slap!”. Sid would dance around asking Australians to protect themselves from the sun while they’re out and about.
The guidance was clear: slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat.
Sid has been in Australian psyche ever since. His messaging has evolved slightly to now include ‘seek and slide’ which encourages Australians to seek shade during the hottest times of the day and to ‘slide’ on a pair of sunglasses.
Campaign impact
Nearly forty years on and the results of the government’s SunSmart campaign are in and they’re impressive…
Over the past 30 years, 13,285 people from Melbourne have been surveyed about their sun protection habits. The surveys were taken at the start of the project (1987) and then every 10 years thereafter (1997, 2007 and 2017).
Participants ranged in age from 14 to 69 years old. Each participant would be quizzed about their tanning attitudes, skin protection behaviour and sunburn incidence on the weekend immediately prior to the call.
In October 2019, Cancer Council Victoria analysed the data from these surveys and published the results of their research.
What the authors revealed was that "the odds of use of at least one sun protection behaviours on summer weekends was three times higher in the 1990s than pre-SunSmart."
"These improvements were sustained into the 2000s and continued to increase in the 2010s."
"The findings are consistent with the possibility that changes over the decades in sun protection behaviour have contributed to the decline in melanoma rates, and have substantial implications for the future delivery of skin cancer prevention programs."
How do men fare?
As you know by now, our mission is to halt the increase in male skin cancer.
So, has the Australia campaign worked on Australian men?
According to the same World Health Organisation data I referred to earlier, Australian men still remain 51% more likely than women to get melanoma and twice as likely to die of it.
In fact, we see this kind of male vs. female disparity in North America and much of Europe too.
So, while sun protection behaviour appears to have improved in Australia across the board, cancer data suggests there's room for improvement.
It’s our view that brands, campaigns, press and sun awareness messaging simply doesn't talk to men. And the statistics speak for themselves. Even in Australia where behavioural change around sun protection has been relatively successful.
Power of people
Changing behaviour and getting skin protection ingrained into people's daily habits is seriously hard.
And it takes years.
And the muscle of a national government.
And, even then, men don't seem to respond.
We're a tiny start-up and we'll do what we can, for as long as we can, even if it's a bit like showing up to a gun fight with a peashooter.
We think the greatest chance of mission success is going to be through the power of teamwork. Men listen to what other men think, do and buy. I definitely know I do.
The network effect of people like you endorsing skin protection to your friends and family (whether they use LifeJacket or another brand) has the power to be more effective than any government campaign. We're pretty sure those closest to you will listen to why you've made the healthy choice to protect your skin daily.
So, what do you say? Are you up for helping those around you and spreading the word?
