Let it snow, but, unless you’re Dita Von Teese, you’re probably raring for a tan. Overcast skies, days on end getting holed up at home, icy beaches—all conspire to put off that elusive glow until summer.

In the face of wintry temperatures, a self tanner is the most obvious route to bronze deification. Nivea, the skin care company, is knowledgeable with fake bakes as it is with sun protection.

These print ads endorse Loción Autobronceante, Nivea Sun’s line of self tanners in Argentina. With vitamins and oil of macadamia, the product may just get you a bake that could outshine the Rio de la Plata.

It’s tanning without the sunning. Slather it, hide under a rock, and still you’d turn brown as peeled apples would in open air. The ads, then, are basically duping nobody, although the library scene could have used nothing but moonshine streaming from the skylight. More important, still, is the incongruous presence of towels therein; the ads couldn’t stand without them.

Solar intervention omitted, such products impart a tan to the skin by essentially “burning” it with chemicals. The active ingredient in most self tanners is DHA (dihydroxyacetone), which reacts with the skin’s proteins.

Granted, the glare of snow on a sunny day is a surefire tanner. Otherwise, sheer sunlight or ultraviolet (UV) light can break through 80 percent of clouds. Either way, they put you in the line of carcinogenic fire.

Melanoma or skin cancer is almost always triggered by exposure to UV rays. In the US, skin cancer is meted out to one million people annually, particularly the fairest-skinned ones. Self tanners may just save someone’s life today.

Fake tans can also be gotten via mineral makeup or bronzer powders. Such cosmetics are manufactured with minerals like boron nitride, bismuth oxychloride, titanium dioxide, talc, mica, and zinc oxide.

In blind darkness, a sun-kissed glow is truly just a brush, slather, or dab away.

Advertising Agency: TBWA/Frederick, Chile
Executive Creative Director: Pablo Leiva
Creative Director / Copywriter: Cristian López
Art Director: Gonzalo Arévalo
Illustrators: Osvaldo Salazar, Gonzalo Arévalo
Photographer: Alfredo León

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