Danish Cancer Society & TrygFonden - Help a small Dane!

Kids of the world stage an intervention to protect Danish kids from skin cancer in the Danish Cancer Society and TrygFonden’s charming new campaign, created by &Co NoA and directed by Peter Harton. Following the Cannes Lions and Clio award-winning campaign, ‘Help a Dane’, which addressed Danes in general in 2017, this new campaign, ‘Help a Small Dane’, shifts its focus to tackling sun safety for Danish kids.

A Spanish kid, Ramon, and his friends in Alcúdia, Mallorca show us the problem, as he reads from his manifesto. Meanwhile, the Danish kid - Viggo Mortensen - interjects with suitable exclamations in Danish. The problem, Ramon explains, is that Danish kids are "red and boring" when they get burned on holiday, and his helpful assistants add dramatic music and info about how burns can lead to cancer down the line. 

Director Peter Harton, who is represented by commercially by Great Guns, comments: “We wanted to use humour to get parents to take note of this embarrassing situation. The creatives at &Co NoA, Ole and Kristoffer, are good friends of mine, so we developed this collaboratively. Creatively, I think we achieved what we aimed for and it’s a charming and fun slap in the face to parents in Denmark. We thought it would be fun to do an updated twist on the classic 50s TV-show, The Little Rascals, so we gave everybody in the gang a clearly defined role: the leader, the engineer, the musical one, the arty one, and the brainy one. Stylistically, we wanted to create a film that looked like it could have been made by these characters. Staying true to the material throughout the editing was quite challenging, because you usually cut away all the pauses in commercials. We initially tried this, but it lost a lot of its charm, so we actually ended up making it even slower than it had been originally.”

Commenting on the shoot, Peter says: “Working with six kids and a dog was definitely the most challenging aspect of the shoot. The client is an NGO, so we didn’t have piles of money to throw around. The crew was tiny and everyone worked in all departments. We were constantly way behind schedule and the shooting time restrictions with the kids didn’t help – but it was a lot of fun. The leader of the gang, Ramon, had so much text and that was a challenge for him, but he was a genius to work with. I was so lucky - we did very few takes and all of the kids were great. Again, solid proof of that casting in king!”

Client: Danish Cancer Society & TrygFonden

Executive Project Manager, Danish Cancer Society: Peter Dalum

Campaign manager, Danish Cancer Society: Dorte Dahl

Campaign manager, Danish Cancer Society: Thomas Koefoed

Head of press, TrygFonden: Karen Bøgedal

Agency: &Co / NoA

Creative Director: Robert Cerkez

Art Directors: Ole Hoffmann & Kristoffer Winther

Copy writer: Kristian Eilertsen

Account Director: Morten Fabricius

Account Manager: Anders Antvorskov

SoMe Planner: Nynne Sille Hansen

Final artist: Morten Grundsøe

Production Company: &Co. Productions / NoA

Director: Peter Harton

Executive Producer: Anders Darre

Producer: Filippa Borg von Bülow

Line-Producer: Maria-Louise Ottesen

Editor: Anders Jon

Director of Photography: Ulrik Boel Bentzen

Set design and wardrobe: Jane Marshal Whittaker

Gaffer: Martin Lerche

Sound recordist & Sound Design: Kevin Koch

Make-Up: Louise Bruun

Casting Mallorca: Virginia Beauget

Casting DK: Casteriet ved Anders

Grading: Bacon X / Hannibal

Music: Asger Baden & Peder

Service Company: Orange Valley

Service Producer: Vincente Jensen

1st AD: Dani Torrejon