Wetsuit za nudl surfanje?

Western Australian wetsuit company, Radiator went all out for attention from the surfing community in a campaign demonstrating the merits of using Skins compression garments while carrying out daring moves on the water. Naked couples demonstrate the Whipper Snipper, Swing Splinter, Nutcracker Sweet positions. The text for each: “Improve your flexibility. Not as thick. Just as warm. All the rubber you’ll need.”

The creative drift behind the campaign has clearly been to make something of the flexibility made possible by wearing thinner skins – thus the combination of yoga and Karma Sutra. And then the nerve the models have in wearing only their own skin despite the chilling effects of wind and water. And of course, to catch the eye of the surfie. The print advertisements are not that much more risque than many campaigns launched in Australian surfing magazines. With cheesy expressions on the models’ faces, the series of ads reference 1960s surfing movies where couples would surf in tandem on Malibu boards.

There are some drawbacks. Clearly these are not real surfers – the sex and the surfing are obviously both simulated in safe surroundings. The explicit nature of the ads has meant that they won’t have been published anywhere in mainstream media. They just made it in here, almost a year since the campaign’s launch in February 2007.

Credits

The Radiator Skins Surf campaign was developed at The Furnace, by executive creative director Rob Martin Murphy, art director Paris Giannakis, copywriter Andrew Allsop, with Singapore photographer Jimmy Fok via Katapolt Photography Management and Productions, Sydney.

The campaign was shortlisted at Cannes 2007.