Healthcare marketing agency Ogilvy Brasil is working with tattooists to boost awareness of skin cancer symptoms.
The new campaign, ‘Tattoo Skin Cancer Check’, stresses the importance of early diagnosis, and is supported by Rio de Janeiro-based sunscreen brand Sol de Janeiro.
The public in Brazil do not see dermatologists as often as they should leading Ogilvy Brasil to call on the people most likely to have close contact with young people’s skin – tattooists.
“The aim is to raise awareness among the young who have their bodies tattooed that the skin demands care. And tattooists can greatly help in this fight against cancer,” said Paco Conde, general creative director at Ogilvy Rio.
More than 450 Brazilian tattooists have attended lectures given by surgical oncologist João Duprat Neto. He is director of the Skin Cancer and Dermatology Department at A.C.Camargo Cancer Center, which acted as technical consultant to the project.
“Our purpose was to give professional tattooists some basic knowledge to help them interpret lesions on their clients’ skin,” Duprat Neto said. The idea is that, having spotted skin irregularities, the tattooists will encourage their clients to visit dermatologists.
“We introduced the points behind what we call the ABCD rule, that is, Asymmetry, Border Irregularity, Colour (a number of colours and shades), and Diameter (greater than five millimetres, growing and shrinking.”
The campaign includes a video, produced by Conspiração (see below).
Skin cancer is the most common type and accounts for over fifty percent of cancer diagnostics. According to the Brazilian National Cancer Institute, the country sees approximately 180,000 new cases a year of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers.