Happy New Year to you all!! This new decade will be the decade for the positive effects of UV light and sunshine. 2020 will show us that there are many more benefits than just vitamin D from sunlight. Benefits will outweigh the risk, so long as you don’t sunburn. We’ll have a better understanding of how a tan protects us from overexposure and any damage is repaired so long as we don’t sunburn. As we all know, the problem is not moderate exposure as the dermatologists suggest. New research over the last year is starting to show how the repair system works and the importance of having higher levels of vitamin D in the skin. No wonder we make vitamin D in the skin from UVB exposure. This helps the immune system to repair any damage without any long-term effects. We’ve also seen how UVA exposure increases nitric oxide to help reduce cardiovascular disease. The dermatologists call nitric oxide a free radicals which damages skin. This is how myopic they are. They don’t consider the benefits to other parts of the body. The general population is starting to see this and questioning the sunscreen promoters. If you haven’t seen this already, the FDA is questioning and asking for more research on 8 ingredients that are being used in sunscreen as they may be a carcinogenic in long term use. We’ve heard that in the next few years oxybenzone will no longer be used.

One of the biggest problems our industry has faced is the negative media and everyone telling the public that any UV exposure is damage and that pretanning doesn’t work. Luckily this media attention is now few and far between. We still have a lot of clients that disagree with this, but some have opted to pretan for a shorter period of time before going on a holiday. The problem with this is they are only getting a minimum amount of protection, and maybe nothing. From conversions I’ve had with salon owners, clients are only coming in a week or 2 weeks before a holiday. We need to get our clients to understand the important of pretanning a month before going on holiday or at least get them to do 10 session as the manufacturer recommends. We need to get clients back to doing 1 month of pretanning before they go on holidays and to follow sunbed exposure schedules that will give them the protection they need when they hit the high UV Index holiday areas. Research (Kimball 2017) has shown a person after 4 weeks of sunbed use can handle 6 times the exposure without any adverse effects, sunburning being the biggest one. De Winter 2001 has also shown reduced risk of sunburning as well as DNA damage after creating a base tan from a sunbed.

This year the JCTA’s main focus for the Please Tan Responsibly Marketing Campaign is to educate Canadians on pretanning before a sunny vacation. This year we created a Facebook ad that has a salon owner letting consumers know the right way to create a base tan. The ad is a simple one: You need to get into a tanning salon 1 month before you go on holiday and do at least 10 sessions to create a base tan. Below are the 2 video ads we’re running this year.

We started the Campaign this year in November, with “Move Indoors,” promoting that outdoor tanning season is over and it’s time to move indoors to keep that sun kissed glow. Below is the video ad we’re running for the second year, since it was so successful last year.

Traffic to the JCTA Consumer Website (TanResponsibly.ca) is seeing on average 660 Canadians a day visiting the website. We’ve reached 1.8 million Canadians with over 40,000 people going to the consumer website with both our Facebook and Google ads since November 1st. The Google ads are outperforming what they did last year for website visits, and time spent on the website is 10 times what it is for Facebook clicks. Google ads are much better at getting the right person to the website and spending time on it. The chart below is the website traffic for November and December.

Not only do they get some great info, they’re seeing the closest 3 salons near them every time they go to the site.

Are you having a problem getting insurance this year, or has pricing gone up? We’ve heard from several salons, both nonmembers and members, that the insurance coverage is getting harder to find and further restriction have been applied to the coverage. This week’s MyJCTA article (see below) has been written by our Industry Advocate Member, Prolink Insurance. Insurance has now turned into a hard market, meaning the underwriters are tightening the coverage and making it harder to even get coverage, especially if you had a claim. The JCTA saw this coming 18 months ago and started working on a way to improve its insurance program. But the biggest problem is you need numbers to be able to negotiate. To increase the numbers, we’re asking every salon to get a quote from Prolink Insurance by calling 1.800.663.6828 and asking for the JCTA Insurance Program. If it’s the same or better price, please go with the only insurance company that has a JCTA membership, Prolink Insurance. If we get these numbers up, we’ll be able to create a policy that works for us all!! Power is in numbers. You can also go to the JCTA Salon Website at www.TanCanada.org and click on the insurance tab – you don’t have to be a member to get a quote.

All the Best for 2020!!