The Belgian Cancer Foundation is trying to increase awareness of skin cancer and the importance of wearing sunscreen to protect against it. Unfortunately, they’ve recently decided the best way to get this across is to fall back on a familiar message: ladies, if you don’t do what we say, you’ll be hideous and your guy won’t want you any more. In this video released as part of the campaign, ostensibly aimed at men (and sent in by YetAnotherGirl and Grace W.), guys fall asleep with their young female partners. After they fall asleep, the women sneak out of bed and their moms take their places, and we get to see the startled reactions when the men wake up, with the final warning that if men don’t make their girlfriends wear sunscreen, “she’ll start looking like her mom far too soon”:
Because you know, ladies, if you don’t wear sunscreen, you’ll age, and that makes you so gross and scary that men will fall out of bed trying to get away from you. And what could be more romantic than a boyfriend lovingly reminding his girlfriend to put on some sunscreen so she doesn’t someday totally freak him out?
Via Gawker.
Comments 23
349057268 — June 12, 2012
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Prbabies — June 12, 2012
I'm a woman, so I can't exactly say what the guys in this ad are thinking, but I can say that if I woke up in bed with my father in law I would freak out on many, many levels that would have nothing to do with skin care or his appearance. This is the weirdest PSA I have ever seen.
Japaniard — June 12, 2012
Mildly unrelated, but if the official languages of Belgium are Dutch, French, and German, then why was this PSA (both the text and the actors' dialogue) completely in English when it was clear from the URLs at the end (one of which I can't even replicate here because I can't make accents) that the target of this PSA is not a primarily English speaking audience?
Edna Mode — June 12, 2012
This is just plan creepy. Why would the Mom's have agreed to this? It's humiliating for them.
Kiki — June 12, 2012
on another note, the video supposes that the audience is made up of girls and men, rather than men and women, or girls and boys...
Cynara Medina — June 12, 2012
First of all, those girls are privy to the prank, and none of them looks like they don't wear sunscreen. What's the point of this thing anyway?
Miss_Led — June 12, 2012
The fact that they wake up in bed with women they know, their mothers-in-law, is the reason they jump out of bed. They would jump out of bed if it was their young niece with perfect skin ot their wife's younger sister, too.
This says exactly zero about sunscreen.
Nightcrawler — June 12, 2012
An interesting narrative to add in there is the idea that a daughter will look like her mother, be like her mother, age like her mother, etc. Some don't look a thing like their mother(s) for multiple reasons.
Mariplasta — June 13, 2012
Well, my mom is way more goodlooking that I. "My man" would've been happy to find her then?.
It seems like we'll never stop this idiotic way of thinking about beauty=worth for women
HelenAnnM — June 13, 2012
I agree with the points made below. My personal creep factor is the idea of anyone going along with this and being comfortable enough to sleep with my partner. In one shot, he's sort of fondling her and the mother is trying not to laugh. Excuse me? I find nothing funny about this, and if it were a "true" commercial (not just a joke gone viral), if I were her boyfriend, I would NEVER trust her again.
diamonddame — June 13, 2012
things like these are the reason I cried when I turned 18, I was bummed when I turned 19 and my friends have all kind had a quarter life crisis at 20. sometimes on purpose I still say I'm 19.... so much freaking pressure and self disgust with aging and seriously.. i can't imagine how older women are supposed to feel if every year it's already a struggle for chicks in their early twenties. what do you become more invisible or unsightly with every wrinkle and age spot? sad. it really is.
Jo — June 14, 2012
I wear Factor 50. But my mum is a right fox, so I'm safe either way.
The sun will turn your girlfriend into her mother | Incredibilii — June 18, 2012
[...] Sharp at Sociological Images posted this weird PSA from the Belgian Cancer Foundation, translating the message as “ladies, [...]
Reut Gelblum — July 4, 2012
So let's get this straight: Belgian GIRLS need to start wearing sunscreen, so that they don't LOOK like their mothers, while it's okay for the Belgian guys to not wear sunscreen because it doesn't matter what guys look like? Is this at all related to skin cancer or other health issues?