USA Swimming, in addition to supporting the Olympic team, is "trying to increase the number of youngsters" who choose to swim over playing other sports, with "a public-service advertising and promotional campaign," according to Andrew Adam Newman of the N.Y. TIMES. One spot opens with "an underwater shot of a swimming pool that is perfectly still, until, in slow motion, a young girl plunges in, hugging her knees." A voice-over then states, “Basketball. Football. Cannonball. Which sounds the most fun to you?" Another spot opens with "a boy about 9 wearing a racing swimsuit and dripping wet as he emerges from a pool." Funk music plays as the boy, also "in slow motion, pushes his goggles up on his forehead, catches a towel thrown to him from off-screen and struts confidently alongside the pool." In the bleachers, male teammates "clap wildly while girl teammates watch him with undisguised awe." The swimmer "wipes his face with the towel, tosses it to the ground, points to a blonde girl smiling at him, high-fives a teammate, and does a jaunty dance-floor full turn." Colle & McVoy, Minneapolis, part of MDC Partners, "handled creative duties on the campaign." Colle & McVoy Chief Creative Officer Mike Caguin said that the "strutting swimmer was meant to counter self-consciousness that some children have about swimming." Newman notes the spots "direct viewers to a website for the effort, SwimToday.org, and promote" the hashtag #funnestsport. Accentuating the "fun factor is a focus of the campaign," which was "first introduced before Memorial Day, when much of the country was taking the first plunge in an outdoor pool in nine months." It will be "heavily promoted again in mid-August, as back-to-schoolers consider which sports to pursue." Among a "handful of partners USA Swimming has in the Swim Today effort are three competing swimwear and equipment brands -- Speedo, Tyr and Arena" (
N.Y. TIMES, 7/22).
