Darque Tan offers a variety of options for tanning to ensure the correct amount of exposure. Scientific studies show that exposure to UV light in tanning beds can increase Vitamin D levels, but some feel that Darque Tan's advertising poses ethical concerns.
Darque Tan ads elicit complaint from law student By: Amie Glover Posted: 4/30/08 Darque Tan advertises that UVB rays from tanning turn cholesterol into Vitamin D. Ads have appeared on billboards and now air on Austin television stations.
"I was riding in the car with my roommate at the time who actually had melanoma, and that was really an ordeal for her," said UT law student Emily Prewett. "And seeing her reaction to that billboard kind of struck me."
Prewett said she contacted Darque Tan to request that they discontinue the ads before she filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General on April 18.
The commercials begin with men in white lab coats. In one advertisement, a man says, "Science has discovered that UVB from tanning converts cholesterol into Vitamin D." Then a narrator says, "Mmm yeah, Vitamin D-licious. Come get yours with a free week of level one tanning … "
In a second advertisement, a man in a lab coat says, "Getting the Vitamin D you need has never been easier. To get just 4,000 IU, it takes 20 cans of sardines - Mmm good - or 40 glasses of milk, if you tolerate lactose. Better yet, get a full 4,000 IU of Vitamin D in just five minutes in a tanning bed at Darque Tan … "
Darque Tan has more than 90 stores in Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. Darque Tan owner Robbie Segler has communicated with Prewett via e-mail regarding her concerns, but he did not respond to multiple phone calls and e-mails from the Texan.
"I don't have an issue with the company, I just have an issue with that particular advertising campaign," Prewett said. "I think that that's the wrong message to be sending potential customers. And it's prohibited for a reason, and it's because there are so many health studies that link cancer and other health risks to UV exposure."
Prewett said she worries the ads may not be ethical because they do not warn viewers of potential health risks associated with tanning.
According to Section 145.007 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, "a tanning facility operator may not claim or distribute promotional materials that claim using a tanning device is safe or free from risk or that using a tanning device will result in medical or health benefits."
Doug McBride, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said that a tanning salon is considered to be used for cosmetic purposes and that such businesses cannot legally make a health claim, real or imagined.
"They cannot make that claim legally," McBride said. "They cannot make any health claim."
McBride said that in late February the department received a complaint about advertising used by a Darque Tan facility, and the department issued a warning letter to Darque Tan in early April. He said the department usually starts by sending out a warning letter. Actions might progress to the department demanding a fine from the facility or revoking its license.
In an e-mail Prewett shared with the Texan, Segler indicated his belief that codes prohibiting a tanning company from making health claims violate First Amendment rights.
Segler also wrote, "the laws that you so proudly flaunt in this instance are laws that prohibit free speech … Why shouldn't indoor tanning be subject to the principle of free speech?"
In response to Prewett's support of the health code, Segler wrote, "If you were a lawyer living in the North in the 1850s, would you have returned runaway slaves to their Southern 'owners' in compliance with the Fugitive Slave Act?" He also asked Prewett if she would have supported genocide in Nazi Germany, or the modern-day "beheading of apostates and the stoning of women for adultery."
Segler wrote that allowing the pharmaceutical industry to make health claims, while prohibiting people like himself, is an aberration "brought into existence by well-funded lobbyists pushing to silence tanning salons."
"The link between melanoma and indoor tanning is non-existent," Segler wrote.
In compliance with a request by the Texas Department of State Health Services, Prewett filed a formal complaint against Darque Tan Tuesday night.
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