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cancer.org.au

Slip! Slop! Slap! and SunSmart (Victoria)

Also: Slip, Slop, Slap · SunSmart · Sid the Seagull

“Slip! Slop! Slap!”

Cancer Council Victoria's skin cancer prevention programme: the 1981 'Slip! Slop! Slap!' animated jingle (slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat), followed from 1988 by the SunSmart programme of summer TV advertising, school and environmental policies. Its TV advertising has been linked to sun-protection behaviour in 25 years of summer surveys.

Years
1981–now
Country
Australia
Coined
SunSmart
Topic
Sun safety
Asks people to
Start
Strategy
Coined termMascotSimple instruction
Channel
TV
Audience
General publicYouth
Victorians, later all Australians; recent SunSmart summer campaigns focus on adolescents and young adults.

Evidence

Quasi-experimentalPositive

Hill et al. (1993): Melbourne summer surveys (n=4,428), baseline 1987-88 then two SunSmart summers; weekend sunburn fell from 11% to 7% (adjusted OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.43-0.81); hat use 19% to 29%, sunscreen 12% to 21%. Dobbinson et al. (2008): nine surveys 1987-2002 (n=11,589); sunburn 9.1% in 2002, about half baseline (OR 0.53); higher SunSmart TV exposure in the prior 4 weeks associated with preference for no tan, hat and sunscreen use, and more skin covered. Dobbinson et al. (2015): 1987-2011 (n=11,881), TARPs associated with no-tan preference (OR 1.12) and sunscreen use (OR 1.09). Gains stalled in the 2000s and adolescent sun protection declined 1993-2002 (Livingston 2007). Evaluations cover SunSmart (1988-), not the 1981 jingle on its own. Tabbakh et al. (2019), summer surveys 1987-2017: hat, sunscreen and shade use rose and stayed up, without a control population.

Sponsor (who paid)

Credits (who made it)

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Tabbakh T et al. Implementation of the SunSmart program and population sun protection behaviour in Melbourne, Australia: Results from cross-sectional summer surveys from 1987 to 2017. PLoS Med 2019;16(10):e1002932 evaluation · 2019 · DOI 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002932 · PMID 31593565
  2. Hill D, White V, Marks R, Borland R. Changes in sun-related attitudes and behaviours, and reduced sunburn prevalence in a population at high risk of melanoma. Eur J Cancer Prev 1993;2(6):447-56 evaluation · 1993 · DOI 10.1097/00008469-199311000-00003 · PMID 8287008
  3. Dobbinson SJ et al. Weekend sun protection and sunburn in Australia: trends (1987-2002) and association with SunSmart television advertising. Am J Prev Med 2008;34(2):94-101 evaluation · 2008 · DOI 10.1016/j.amepre.2007.09.024 · PMID 18201638
  4. Dobbinson SJ, Volkov A, Wakefield MA. Continued impact of SunSmart advertising on youth and adults' behaviors. Am J Prev Med 2015;49(1):20-8 evaluation · 2015 · DOI 10.1016/j.amepre.2015.01.011 · PMID 25794474
  5. Livingston PM et al. Australian adolescents' sun protection behavior: who are we kidding? Prev Med 2007;44(6):508-12 evaluation · 2007 · DOI 10.1016/j.ypmed.2007.02.015 · PMID 17400286
  6. Museums Victoria: Alexander (Alex) Stitt AM (2024) history · 2024
  7. Cancer Council Australia: The birth of Slip Slop Slap and the science behind nation-wide behaviour change sponsor
  8. Dobbinson et al. Assessing population-wide behaviour change: concordance of 10-year trends in self-reported and observed sun protection. International Journal of Public Health 2013 evaluation · 2013 · DOI 10.1007/s00038-013-0454-5 · PMID 23519893
  9. Makin JK et al. Population and age-group trends in weekend sun protection and sunburn over two decades of the SunSmart programme in Melbourne, Australia. Br J Dermatol 2013 evaluation · 2013 · DOI 10.1111/bjd.12082 · PMID 23039760
  10. Borland R et al. Being SunSmart: Changes in Community Awareness and Reported Behaviour Following a Primary Prevention Program for Skin Cancer Control. Behaviour Change 1990 evaluation · 1990 · DOI 10.1017/s0813483900007105
  11. Carter R et al. Could a national skin cancer primary prevention campaign in Australia be worthwhile?: an economic perspective. Health Promotion International 1999 evaluation · 1999 · DOI 10.1093/heapro/14.1.73

Research notes

Credits fetched from Museums Victoria page 2026-10-22 (browser; WebFetch 403). Launch year: Museums Victoria and most sources say 1981; SunSmart's own history page (snippet) says 1980. Jingle composer Peter Best (NFSA, snippet). SunSmart agencies after 1988 not identified. Channels limited to TV (the only one evidenced on pages read); SunSmart also runs school and environmental programmes. topic id sun-safety (shared with PR #15). Alex Stitt credited as 'production' (animator/designer); no animation role in the enum. PR #15 had a literature-only duplicate (vic-sunsmart) and dropped it in favour of this record; its Tabbakh 2019 source was copied here. Topic id 'sun-safety' is shared with PR #15. 1 evaluation source(s) added 2026-10-22 from a duplicate record on the US re-run branch (PR #15), DOIs checked on Crossref. Evaluation sources added 2026-10-22 (citation snowballing / helpline pass): Makin 2013, Borland 1990, Carter 1999; evidence level and outcome unchanged.

Record cases/slip-slop-slap-sunsmart.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign