Black Skin Directory to make people of colour part of suncare conversation

Black Skin Directory (BSD) is launching a sun protection awareness campaign to shine a light on melanoma in the black population. 

BSD has partnered with consumer suncare brand Ultrasun on the campaign, which will feature people of colour in a video advert created to speak directly to a black audience. 

The campaign aims to respond to the absence of black skin in UK suncare adverts and a lack of sun protection messaging that speaks to people of colour, especially as the melanoma mortality rate is 1.5 times higher among the black population, according to research.

“Clinical evidence shows that the darker skin demographic is less likely to develop skin cancer, but yet has a higher mortality rate than Caucasians”, commented Dija Ayodele, founder of Black Skin Directory. “This is not a fact that many people are aware of and is due to various reasons, ranging from a lack of engagement with skin health messaging around sun protection, to health professionals and research focussing more on the white population where skin cancer rates are higher; and suncare brands being slow to adequately market to darker skin tones. All these factors combined have contributed to the dichotomy in skin cancer and its survival rates in the black population.” 

The campaign will run during Sun Awareness Week (May 6-12) and will also include a billboard and a pop-up e-shop on the BSD site featuring a selection of suncare products chosen by Ayodele as suitable for darker skin tones. 

BSD will also work with The British Skin Foundation to expose myths and misconceptions, such as that black skin doesn’t burn in the sun.