why don't sunscreen companies do more at sporting events?

or I got a bad sunburn at a race and I like free stuff- Amanda

This is an open post because it barely has to do with sports and is entirely motivated by the atrocious sunburn I got at the Long Beach Grand Prix. God I love having free will to write whatever I want.

In 2024 I went to the last few days of the US Open. I previously wrote about it here a bit in my post about Cosm in Los Angeles but one thing I didn’t talk about was La Roche Posey being one of their sponsors and the official sunscreen of the US Open.

La Roche Posey is a skincare company. At the US Open they had a few little popup carts and were handing out minis of sunscreen each day. I probably got about 10 over the course of my time there. At the time I thought it was smart and incredibly convenient but now post grand prix burn I am now convinced this was a brilliant move highlighting a missed opportunity by other brands.

But with all my experience of sporting events and even just outdoor events, I am shocked that more companies with a sunscreen on their product lineup aren’t taking advantage of these opportunities.

Growing up in Southern California as an individual of the extremely pale variety I have gotten many truly bad sunburns. A few have come from the beach, but most come from outdoor events. Many from afternoon Angels games, parades, a few at my brother’s baseball games, and more than a couple from events I was at to review. For example: Renaissance Pleasure Faire 2023. Got such a diabolical sunburn in such record time I didn’t even realize it was happening till my necklace moved to the side when I was taking a photo and I realized there was a little outline from it on my chest.

Apparently my body yearns to be a tomato.

At the Renfaire, my friends and I wandered all over trying to find someone with any sunscreen. Even the medical stand didn’t have any. I’m fairly certain I had to get some from one of the beer girls.

Now aside from me being a bad adult in that case, there are so many opportunities for companies to hand out sunscreen a la Red Bull reps style at events.

So many people forget about bringing sunscreen along with them to events, especially with bag restrictions becoming increasingly more strict. Sometimes you think you are going to get shade or cover and then you are sorely mistaken. In my case of the Long Beach Grand Prix, I did have sunscreen but it must have expired because even though I reapplied twice while at the event I still got burned. And a truly stupid burn at that with a bag strap outline and all.

But outdoor events sporting or otherwise have only ramped up post lockdown and it’s a huge opportunity to build brand familiarity! Imagine parents who forgot sunscreen and you are the brand who make sure their kids don’t get burned while they watch cars zoom around the streets of Long Beach. Energy drink companies like Red Bull have become synonymous with in person events even without their own wild schedule of extreme sporting events because they put people there, handing out drinks.

This could be you!!!!! Yes I know I sound like an infomercial! But I hate missed opportunities! And this feels like a national missed opportunity and chronic peeling sunburns!

If nothing else I hope as the summer really kicks into high gear I start hearing and seeing more about sunscreen and skincare companies popping up at outdoor events. Keep in mind that this works best with FREE samples. Snag an email if you need to or have spots available to buy full size but way more goodwill will be won via free-ninety-nine priced items.