Editorial

Knowing that our sunscreen will do as it says may just save lives. At the very least it will help maintain confidence in a product we ask our kids to slop on every day. At worst it will put the price up by a couple of per cent.

Consumer NZ’s testing has another lesson for us. As consumers we should be able to expect a product will do what it says. We have the Consumer Guarantees Act to back up this expectation. But we should not blindly believe that expectation will be met just because the rules say it should be. In a competitive market place businesses can be expected to push a product’s claims to the extreme – to maximise the potential benefits and minimise the weaknesses. That is marketing 101.

We accept the exaggeration of this type of marketing in such things as the latest exercise gadget, cooking implement or underarm deodorant and do little more than roll our eyes when those claims fall short.

We don’t have the same sense of cynicism for sunscreen. This could be because most of us would assume sunscreen must reach a certain prescribed level of effectiveness before it is even allowed on the market.

After decades of government promotion to wear sunscreen when outside and daily reminders from our government-backed weather service of what hours of the day that protection is required, that’s a fair assumption. It’s now time the rules caught up with that assumption.

Regardless of when that happens, the sunscreen advice from 1997 holds true. Wear it. It’s a proven life-saver. But slip on a T-shirt as well and, of course, slap on that hat.