Slip! Slop! Slap! (Sid the Seagull)
Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria1981
Slip! Slop! Slap! (Sid the Seagull) is a 1981 animated television commercial for Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, created by Monahan Dayman Adams.
The line
Slip, Slop, Slap!
Why it works
A cartoon seagull in board shorts, T-shirt and hat dances across the screen singing three verbs that became a national reflex: slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat. Made for the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria by Monahan Dayman Adams, the 'Life. Be in it.' trio of Phillip Adams (words), Peter Best (music) and Alex Stitt (design and animation), the 1981 spot adapted a Queensland Cancer Fund jingle and turned sun protection into a chant children could repeat. It is studied as a model of behaviour-change advertising: one concrete instruction, a likeable messenger and a rhythm that does the remembering. The pilot was so effective it spread to radio, print, other states and the Australian Cancer Society, paved the way for the SunSmart program in 1988, and is widely credited with a dramatic shift in Australians' sun-protection behaviour. Cancer Council says the slogan has entered the Australian language; in 2023 the National Film and Sound Archive added Sid's jingle to its Sounds of Australia registry.
Techniques
- Jingles and music Three sung verbs, slip, slop and slap, turn sun protection into a chant children can repeat, letting the rhythm do the remembering.
- Mascots and characters A likeable cartoon seagull in board shorts, T-shirt and hat models each step, giving the health message a friendly messenger.
Sources · 4
Updated
