Seeing as the sun does - sunscreen and information failure

Sometimes teaching economics puts us in a very privileged position to influence students lives in a positive way. After a discussion of the theory and a brilliant graphical analysis of merit and demerit goods, it is likely that I can overcome any information failure on the students behalf and see dramatic increases in the consumption of healthy foods and a swearing off drugs and excessive alcohol intake for life.

Well perhaps it doesn't happen quite like that but it is perhaps possible to educate the students to make small changes that could make a difference later in life. One such example is the information failure relating to sunscreen. In a sense this is a true information failure as our normal human vision can't perceive the potential damage that the sun could do to our skin. But viewing our skin under UV light lets us "see as the sun sees". The following video from photographer Thomas Leveritt wasn't actually designed to highlight the benefits of sunscreen but the fact that it has been viewed over 14 million times shows that the message goes well beyond his original proposal of simply seeing how faces look under UV light.

A question to then pose is whether or not the government should intervene in the market for sunscreen. Not many students tend to think it should be provided for free but a subsidy is often mentioned as a possibility. The other main idea usually given is for the government to pay for sunscreen promotion to overcome some of the information failure. Of course, all of the options have costs and benefits and make for interesting discussion! And perhaps, just perhaps, it will encourage someone to be a more thoughtful as they head out for a day at the beach!