An SOS message for assistance has been launched through a two-minute video by the Danish Cancer Society, asking residents of Greece, as well as those of another four foreign holiday destinations, to look after their delicate, pale-skinned Danish visitors, who may be at risk of sunburn when they visit those countries during the summer months.

Each language version of the videos, which were directed in an informative yet humorous style, features famous presenter Mikael Bertelsen individually addressing the people of Greece, France, Italy, Spain and Thailand in their own language, accompanied by a choir of sunburnt Danish men and women. The five countries are the top tourism destinations for Danes.

“Dear residents of Greece. Denmark needs your help. We Danes love your country but there is a problem. The strong sun is harmful to our delicate skin and every day a Dane dies from skin cancer. We know you have a lot on your plate, but we respectfully ask for your support. Help a Dane in the sun. Tens of thousands of us travel from the cold, dark north to your fantastic islands and beaches. As soon as we see a ray of sunshine we forget to take precautions and we ‘burn’ for hours. Show us how to be more like you,” Mr Bertelsen says in Greek during the video.

Backed by some dramatic string music, the announcer then demonstrates how locals can help their paler visitors in fluent Greek.

“Whether at the beach, at a tavern or visiting the Parthenon, remind us to seek the shade of a sun umbrella, wear a hat and sunscreen,” he says.

The amusing yet powerful campaign to raise awareness for skin cancer manages to convey its ‘Help a Dane’ message with humour while being backed up with some serious statistics.

“We have chosen the five major destinations for Danish tourists when they go on sunny holidays based on statistics from the travel industry and a big telecom company here in Denmark,” explains campaign manager Thomas Koefoed in an interview with Neos Kosmos.

“Studies show that Danes typically get a high percentage of their yearly UV exposure from one or two weeks of sunny holidays, in Greece for instance. Denmark has the highest incidence of the deadliest form of skin cancer (melanoma) in Scandinavia, the population size and age distribution taken into account. On a global scale, Denmark has the fifth-highest incidence of melanoma. Only Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Holland have higher statistics,” explains Koefoed.

The Danish Sun Safety Campaign has been trying to educate the Danes to be more careful in the sun for over a decade.

“This year we decided to try a new approach. We Danes are usually very pleased with ourselves and we love to hear how the world around us perceives us, especially when it’s something positive like being the happiest country in the world. So we thought that maybe the Danes would be more open to the message if it was coming from some of the countries that we love to travel to.
“Also, many Danes would like to do ‘as the locals do’ when they travel, so we thought that the Sun Safety Campaign and all Danes could maybe learn something from the rest of the world.”

The campaign’s website invites people to sign up as ambassadors, for which they’ll receive a special thank you and a guide on how to help a Dane in the sun. “We have had great responses in all five countries, in Greece and Thailand especially, but the involvement in Greece, the number of comments and shares of the video is just incredible.

“Mikael doesn’t actually speak Greek so he learned the whole speech by heart and was assisted by an interpreter during the filming. The Greek language is quite far from the Danish language, so it took many hours and a great effort from Mikael to get it (about) right,” Koefoed reveals about Bertelsen, who certainly rose to the occasion and delivered a clear message to the rest of the world.

“More importantly, approximately 5,000 Greeks have signed up to help the campaign. This is beyond our wildest expectations and we are also delighted to hear that there is interest even in Australia, where people have to cope with the strong sun on their fair skin in their everyday lives,” says Koefoed, who firmly believes that considering the nature of the Nordic climate, there is no real reason why Danes should be in the global Top 5 of skin cancer countries and that the number of melanoma incidences in Denmark could be reduced significantly, if Danes were more careful during their summer holidays.

“We just hope that Danish people will get the message that the sun is much stronger in countries like Australia and Greece and that they will start listening and act as the locals do; with respect towards the sun.”

A special website devoted to the campaign has been made available at www.helpadane.com
Here is the full advertisement in Greek: