Industry: Tanning bed coffin ads overkill

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, June 22 (UPI) -- Online ads showing young people tanning in coffins are "appalling," members of the tanning industry in New Brunswick, Canada, said.

Ellen Snider, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Cancer Society in New Brunswick, said the society and the provincial government launched the ads on Facebook to discourage youth from using tanning machines to reduce the risk of skin cancer.

"The Canadian Cancer Society and the government of New Brunswick decided the types of communications that needed to go out to youth had to be edgy," she told the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal.

A graphic with the image of a coffin tanning bed reads: "Using a tanning bed for prom? Know what you're getting into."

Frank Findlay, who owns and operates tanning outlets in Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton, told the newspaper his company operates under provincial regulations.

"I am appalled by this ad, because the provincial government imposed guidelines that we are going by already," he said.

Steve Gilroy, executive director of the Joint Canadian Tanning Association, said cancer fears were being unfairly focused on the industry.

"What they should then have is a coffin on the beach, a coffin on the golf course, a coffin on the baseball field, because if you are going to talk about risk from (ultraviolet) exposure there are more risks of exposure than a tanning bed will ever be," he said. "This has gone way over the line."