Tom Daley preaches water safety for Malibu rum in first post-retirement campaign

Malibu rum and Wieden+Kennedy London have nailed the timing and subject of their new celebrity endorsement, signing just-retired British Olympic diver Tom Daley to be the face (and other body parts) of a campaign warning of the dangers of drinking alcohol around water. The campaign, which launches Wednesday, features portraits of Daley in Mallorca lounging around a pool in skimpy red swim briefs with the phrase “Don’t drink and dive” custom-knitted into them. One of several video executions (below) reveals the alarming stat that informs the work: that one in four drowning deaths in the U.K. involves booze. W+K London's in-house creative production studio, WracK, created the executions. The videos feature the famous 1979 Rupert Holmes track “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” The campaign will also feature floating out-of-home displays in water locations across the U.K. Daley, 30, announced after the Paris Olympics, where he won silver, that he is retiring from professional diving. He won five Olympic medals in his career, including a gold and three bronze. “The ‘Don’t Drink and Dive’ platform allows Malibu to carve out a very ownable water safety space within the responsibly drinking category,” said Philippa Beaumont and Freddy Taylor, creative directors at W+K. “We’re so proud that the first iteration landed us a national treasure sporting life-saving, knitted swimwear. We’re so excited for all the good we’ll be attempting to do as the platform evolves.” Craig van Niekerk, Malibu’s VP of marketing, said the brand is committed to a “long-term responsible drinking, behavior-change platform, which raises awareness of the very real risks surrounding alcohol consumption near water.” The knitted apparel, including sunglasses and a bucket hat, is exclusively available to buy, as a limited-edition capsule collection, from Daley’s own Made With Love brand, with all proceeds going to the Royal Life Saving Society UK. More Creativity coverage from Ad Age: Sign up for our daily Creativity newsletter to see the best stories of the day.

Tom Daley preaches water safety for Malibu rum in first post-retirement campaign

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