Help a Dane: TV personality asks for Thai help with sunscreen in viral campaign

By Coconuts Bangkok

 

 

A Danish man speaks unintelligible Thai in the campaign “Help a Dane,” as he asks for Thai people’s help in a viral campaign to raise awareness of skin cancer.

 

The video, released by The Danish Cancer Society and TrygFonden, features Danish TV personality Mikael Bertelsen, who pleads for Thais to help warn Danish tourists about applying sunscreen.

 

“We Danes love your country, but there is a problem.” Bertelsen speaks with all seriousness in hard-to-understand Thai. “The strong sun is harmful to our delicate skin, and everyday a Dane dies from skin cancer.”

 

Full Story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2017/02/08/help-dane-tv-personality-asks-thai-help-sunscreen-viral-campaign-video

 

-- © Copyright Coconuts Bangkok 2017-2-8

 

 

Interesting - the UK now diagnoses more cases of skin cancer than the world authorities - Australia, yet most of the visiting people or expats I meet in Thailand have little or  no knowledge of how we get skin cancer and do little to protect themselves - Thai people on the other hand, almost instinctively do a lot to protect themselves.

Some years ago, maybe 4-5? recall group of Australians from NGO giving out bottles of sunscreen on beach in Jomtien. Maybe Denmark could give out carry on legal size  sunscreen lotion at check in for flights to tropics? Action speaks louder than blah blah. Might get them in habit, so buy some replacement when gift runs out....

2 hours ago, Alan Deer said:

Interesting - the UK now diagnoses more cases of skin cancer than the world authorities - Australia, yet most of the visiting people or expats I meet in Thailand have little or  no knowledge of how we get skin cancer and do little to protect themselves

 

You can't fix stupid. Anyone who can read knows the problem and protects against the sun. They've simply chosen to ignore the advice to the point they can't remember having encountered it. If you tell them again now, they'll still ignore it. Cf. advice to wear crash helmets, drive safely, don't drink & drive, avoid drinking to excess, don't swim 'cause of the undertow, don't climb on those rocks, etc.

 

Quote

- Thai people on the other hand, almost instinctively do a lot to protect themselves.

 

Instinctively but coming from a very different consideration. Fear of skin cancer ain't it.

 

LOL…..this is hilarious…love it.

 

The bad thai makes it even better.

 

Who says we have to speak passathai for these guys?

 

Look at their english…it sucks.

1 hour ago, JSixpack said:

 

You can't fix stupid. Anyone who can read knows the problem and protects against the sun. They've simply chosen to ignore the advice to the point they can't remember having encountered it. If you tell them again now, they'll still ignore it. Cf. advice to wear crash helmets, drive safely, don't drink & drive, avoid drinking to excess, don't swim 'cause of the undertow, don't climb on those rocks, etc.

 

 

Instinctively but coming from a very different consideration. Fear of skin cancer ain't it.

 

that's a hugely misinformed assessment. The fact is that uniformed doesn't mean stupid and even though people know the connection they don't know how it works - many think it's to do with how hot it is or just lying in the sun...they don't understand UV types and how they get you.

 

thai people know over the centuries that exposure to the sun "is not good" - if you are referring to white skin syndrome - that has it's roots in a culture of avoiding sun...if you couldn't you went dark - this usually means that you are a poor worker or farmer.... this also applied to western culture until the 1920s when eugenics (yuck!) and Hollywood changed it all...still a prejudice based on skin color but in reverse - to a point.

 

humans who live in tropical climates and the like are all culturally averse to the sun - they have known for centuries that is "isn't good for you" - they may not have clinically defined it but they knew various problems were the result of too much sun. Brown skin is still susceptible to cancers.

 

Oz takes the problem very seriously and has a proactive approach - they have sun patrols in most public places where exposure to the sun is likely to be prolonged.....

 

Why is sunscreen so expensive in Thailand ?

24 minutes ago, Alan Deer said:

that's a hugely misinformed assessment. The fact is that uniformed doesn't mean stupid and even though people know the connection they don't know how it works - many think it's to do with how hot it is or just lying in the sun...they don't understand UV types and how they get you.

 

No. Stupid means ignoring the VAST wealth of public information & your own momma, and not bothering to inform yourself if you somehow manage to live in some alternate universe. GIYF. I suspect most are lying who claim they "don't know."

 

Nor do you need to know the science about UV types and the mechanism of it all simply to avoid excessive sun exposure.

 

Glad you now agree re: Thais that it ain't skin cancer. :) To delve further into anthropology you might talk about the farang cultural "need" to look tanned and how silly that it.

My Danish friends could indeed have used some help, the first days after the rain stopped at Samui...

I'm sure the Danes are well informed about skin cancer but, like most of us (years ago, on holiday from a 'cold' country) want to enjoy the sun and get a tan.

 

Most of us grow out of this after living here for a while and adopt the Thai 'habit' of keeping out of the sun as much as possible.

 

I'm more suprised/shocked/depressed at the way skin cancer has become a serious issue.  Is it because skin cancer deaths weren't recognised as such in the past?

On 2/9/2017 at 1:32 PM, dick dasterdly said:

I'm more suprised/shocked/depressed at the way skin cancer has become a serious issue.  Is it because skin cancer deaths weren't recognised as such in the past?

 

I've often wondered exactly the same. My preference is to remember my youth (when perhaps it was unknown) when it was considered fun running around a beach actually enjoying yourself without the worry of such things. In fact all through my life I have been exposed to extreme weathers without the need of sunblock and I am still fine today. Maybe that's just because I don't overly worry too much?

 

If skin cancer has progressed/increased because of climate change over a micro-second of earth's history from my youth to present day, then I am a convert if those facts can be proven.

 

If not, then I firmly believe this is another niche enterprise attached to the global warming theories that abound.