We had a big Skin Cancer Awareness Month in 2023
May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month and it is one of the most important months for the Academy’s mission to educate the public about skin cancer. Our efforts to promote the AAD’s SPOT Skin Cancer™ program, which aims to provide information on how to detect and prevent skin cancer, led to over 2,600 media placements, which were seen more than 2.8 billion times.
One of the most successful media placements for Skin Cancer Awareness Month was a CBS Newspath article featuring Mara Skelsey, MD, FAAD, board-certified dermatologist and member of the Academy’s Media Expert Team, who discovered melanoma on a patient’s stomach. The story was syndicated 319 times and reached a total audience of more than 3.6 million people.
Another member of the Media Expert Team, Hope Mitchell, MD, FAAD, was featured in Parade, where she discussed ways to protect yourself from the sun. The Academy also had success in sharing the story of Ilia Smith, a nurse practitioner from Dallas who, as a Black woman, wasn’t worried about skin protection until she was diagnosed with melanoma in 2021. Ilia’s story was featured in Today and reached 5.8 million people. In addition, the Academy engaged in a robust social media campaign for Skin Cancer Awareness Month — hosting two Instagram live events: one on busting sun protection myths and one featuring Academy President Terrence Cronin Jr., MD, FAAD, on how to check yourself for skin cancer. Other top-performing posts included ABCDEs of melanoma, sunscreen application, and basal cell carcinoma. In total, Skin Cancer Awareness Month social media posts were seen 16.5 million times and 2.8 million engagements, resulting in 31,381 click-throughs to AAD.org.
To close out the month, the Academy also taught the public how to check their skin at home and when to see a board-certified dermatologist with a new Your Dermatologist Knows video, “Find skin cancer: How to perform a skin self-exam.” The video was viewed more than 68,500 times on Instagram and YouTube in the first week after publication. It was also promoted with a news release that was seen 86 million times, including coverage in HealthDay.
