Shortly before the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Adidas launched its first burkini collection. For the launch on Dubai’s Kite Beach, the German sporting goods giant developed a liquid billboard – a large aquarium with real swimmers. Dynamic out-of-home advertising directly at the point of pleasure.
The liquid billboard is five meters high and has a three-meter-deep swimming pool made of reinforced transparent acrylic. The pool holds up to 44,000 liters of water – or the equivalent of almost 163 bathtubs. A team of 32 people was required to build the structure, working on the liquid billboard around the clock for three weeks.
The “Beyond the Surface” campaign celebrated the launch of Adidas’ first burkini collection underlining the brands commitment to offering athletes everywhere a greater choice of functional and fashionable clothing, while also inspiring confidence in women with cultural adapted swimsuit collection.
Adidas Watch Us Move initiatives aim to create more space for women in sport and celebrating the power of water. The new campaign is led by spoken word artist and sports inclusivity activist Asma Elbadawi, who wrote a specially commissioned poem to celebrate her relationship with water and the confidence it can bring to all women.
A YouGov survey commissioned by adidas in 2021 shows that only 12 percent of women in the United Arab Emirates wear a swimsuit on a public beach or pool. Body shaming and lack of privacy are the two main reasons why women don’t feel comfortable in their swimsuits. Women in Dubai were invited to take part in a dive in “Beyond the Surface” as part of the brand’s global attempt to ensure that sport is welcoming to all. The dive was attended by triathlete Dareen Barbar, who is also a Guinness World Records title holder, as well as Raha Moharrak, the first Saudi Arabian woman to climb Mount Everest.