Banana Boat

Brian says that the lack of clarity turned up the heat on the anti-sunscreen movement.

You know, one of the first and most arresting images I came across was of a creator who had taken a bottle of Banana Boat sunscreen, I believe it was, you know, sprayed it, and lit the spray on fire with, uh, a lighter.

And, and obviously, that's all to say, in his view, "Look at this toxic...

Look at these toxic chemicals that you're spraying onto your skin.

Um, um, it turned out also that some of them, they, they're fake.

There was a famous sunscreen called Banana Boat, which was meant to be really good, really healthy.

Slap it on your children, and it, it had this really good SPF number.

But when they tested it, it was all fake.

Banana Boat was no good for you.

Anyway, um, so, uh, 1988, um, they added a little jingle to the ad.

So we'll, um, we'll play the 1980 ad.

And so the company that was called SunSmart transitioned into making this raw material.

And so growing up, my dad and his company and the 25 PhDs they had working for him, they all formulated the sunscreens for Ulta MD, Banana Boat, Shiseido, Blue Lizard, Hawaiian Tropic, many of the brands that you've heard of today.

And so sunscreen was definitely in the family.

Ironically, my mom's a two-time melanoma survivor.