This Ad for a Snorkeling Mask Is So Elegant, You Won’t Want to Hit the Beach Without One

This ain't your grandpa's snorkeling mask.

To promote Tribord's Easybreath full-face snorkeling mask, French agency Rosapark released a spot that almost seamlessly blends water and sky—a visual metaphor for how the Easybreath lets you breathe underwater just like you do on land. 

"Easybreath is a real innovation in the world of diving—gone is the need for a separate mask and snorkel, and the difficulties some people having using them," explained the agency's creative director, Jamie Standen. "Our brief was to get across the scale of this invention." 

Because the Easybreath covers your entire face, it allows you to breathe the way you would normally—instead of focusing on keeping a snorkeling tube properly affixed to your mouth. You also don't have to worry about the logistics of putting on a separate mask and affixing the snorkel comfortably.

To illustrate this, Rosapark enlisted help from Fleur&Manu, who directed the spot, and composer Laurent Perez Del Mar. The ad opens on a snorkeler who—shot from above, with the clouds reflected on the water—looks as though he's floating in the sky. 

The ad also lingers on the mask itself. Its clarity and elegant design are neatly highlighted by how well its face mirrors surroundings: Surreal sky and schools of fish ripple across its surface. A stingray passes, close enough to touch, and the snorkeler reaches slowly forward.

The serene work is a marked departure from Rosapark's last Tribord campaign, which was way more in-your-face: To sell the brand's Izeber life vests, it offered boardwalkers samples of a disgusting new drink—sea water. That ad won a silver Lion at Cannes.

"I think there's still consistency; both projects revolve around innovation," Standen said. "For Izeber, we felt people would understand quite quickly what the product did—it's a lifejacket—so we adopted a really innovative approach for the marketing. For Easybreath, the product is already so innovative. All we had to do was find a simple idea to showcase it, then stand back and let the product itself do the work." 

The ad perhaps succeeds most at demonstrating what the Easybreath doesn't do—get in your way. If you've ever used a snorkel and mask, the very logistics of the bulky plastic apparati are sufficient to remind you that people don't belong in the sea. 

While the Easybreath still won't take you deeper than the average snorkel can go, the limpid way in which its users float under the water's surface, hands and faces free to experience what's around them, is a selling point in itself—neither oversold nor undersold here.

"What we aimed to convey in the TV spot, visually, is that there's a new way to be in the water, to see the water," Standen continued. "I hope people who can't be bothered with snorkels will try diving with the Easybreath. Diving is pretty cool!" 

The price point is also as easygoing as the product's name: $44, a reasonable enough investment to transform your relationship with our underwater friends. Of course, there remain some watery experiences you probably still won't want to witness up close.

"During the shoot, there was a tsunami warning. Needless to say, the boat didn't go back to port that night," Standen adds.

The film is currently airing throughout France in 15-, 30- and 60-second increments.

CREDITS

Brand: Tribord

Brand Management : Espen Heier

Directeur de la Communication : David Martinelly

Agency: Rosapark

Co-founder: Jean-Patrick Chiquiar

Co-founders in charge of creative: Gilles Fichteberg, Jean-Francois Sacco

Creative Directors: Mark Forgan, Jamie-Edward Standen

Copywriter: Nicolas Gadesaude

Art Director: Julien Saurin

Account Management: Rozenn Traineau

TV Production: Lauriane Dula

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