[L’industrie c’est fou] In Peru, beer bottles protect residents from powerful UV rays

2023-05-05 05:30:00

While the sun is making its way during the long French winters, in Peru, it is beating down hard. So strong that the South American country located near the equator has one of the highest ultraviolet radiation in the world and sees skin cancers multiply among its population. In Arequipa, the country’s second largest city, located 2,335 meters above sea level, “cases of skin cancer […] increased by almost 200% compared to last yearsays dermatologist Ivette Soto. An impressive increase although it should be qualified because the number of new cases had decreased in recent years due to the Covid-19 epidemic which kept people at home.

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To remedy this worrying situation, the AB InBev brewery, which produces the local Arequipeña beer, and the VMLY&R Peru agency, decided to build shelters whose roof is made of used Arequipeña bottles. Because these packages all have UV 400 protection, able to protect the beer they contain and prevent the appearance of melanoma in the city’s population. Nicknamed “Arequipeña bottle tiles”, the roofs are equipped with informative panels and QR codes. “By scanning roofs, people can plan preventative screening for skin cancer,” says Giannina Orellana, director of the NGO Por un Peru sin cancer, which contributed to the project.

In the long version of its campaign, AB InBev claims “to have used [son] product to show people how much we care about them. A speech perhaps a bit hypocritical for a liquor seller… Anyway, the Arequipeños can at least now proudly sip an Arequipeña under the roofs of Arequipeña bottles, in Arequipa!

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