Maria Sharapova and Holly Thaggard launch new skin cancer awareness campaign

Published: 28-Sep-2015

Project Black Dot aims to raise awareness of skin cancer throughout the year

Tennis champion and Supergoop! Co-Owner, Maria Sharapova, has launched a new skin cancer campaign alongside Supergoop! Founder and CEO Holly Thaggard. Project Black Dot aims to raise awareness and improve skin health in the US by reminding consumers about sun care outside of the summer months.

In the US, sunscreen is treated as an 'over the counter drug' by the FDA and as a result, 47 states do not allow children to carry and apply sunscreen at school without a permission slip. The campaign is working with current regulations on the use of sunscreen in schools, providing a permission slip for parents to fill in. The slip will allow children to use and apply sunscreen at school. Supergoop! hopes by the end of the campaign 100,000 permission slips will be given.

Thaggard explained: "Each year there are nore new cases of skin cancer than breast, prostate, lung and colon cancer combined...and yet skin cancer is one of the most preventable of cancers. While summer season and event based sun care is a practice that is on the rise, people are less engaged in every day, year-round sun care habits. It's incidental, unprotected exposure to UV rays over the course of a lifetime that creates much of the cumulative damage that leads to skin cancer."

Sharpova added: “Children experience nearly three times more UV exposure than adults, yet we are not supplying them with what they need to protect their skin at school. Through Project Black Dot and Project 1: Permission, I am excited to offer a new way for us to educate parents and policymakers across the country about the importance of teaching children safe sun practices, especially in their formative years.”

Supergoop! claims to be the only prestige skin care brand dedicated to sun care innovations and research. It launched this new campaign on 23 September – the first day of autumn, when many consumers stop thinking about sun protection.

Thaggard added: "Our goal at Supergoop! is for sun protection to be as recognised as a healthy habit as the need for women to get mammograms or even more simply to teach your child to wear a seat belt or brush her teeth. With Project Black Dot, Maria and I are excited to share our passion and help ignite the important conversation about skin cancer prevention while providing simple, convenient tools to help Americans embrace healthy sun protection habits.”

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