May 2009    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 24, No. 5   What's this?

Do These Stunts Really Promote Diving?

from the May, 2009 issue of Undercurrent  

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Sure, the diving industry needs all the help it can get to keep current divers purchasing and lure new people into the sport, but these two recent scuba-focused promotions seem a bit cheesy.

In March, Intercontinental Hotels suspended a pair of divers off the Sony Building in Tokyo to promote new luxury resorts on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The stunt, orchestrated by ad agency McCann Erickson, Tokyo, has two stuntmen performing an “air-diving ballet” high in the air several times a day for four days. They’re supposed to represent the diving offered at Intercontinental’s Manza Beach and Ishigaki resorts. Oh yes, hanging off a high-rise really gives one the sense of what it’s like to dive underwater – especially when they reach their maximum depth with a plunge onto hard concrete....