Adidas and Havas Middle East made waves in 2021 with ‘Underwater Billboard’, a world-first activation promoting the brand’s inclusive swimwear range. The campaign transformed outdoor media into an act of participation by building a billboard people could actually swim inside. The intent was to make inclusivity a lived experience rather than a corporate slogan.
Installed off Dubai’s coast, the five-metre-high structure held over 11,000 gallons of water and was designed to withstand open-sea conditions. Live footage of women swimming inside the billboard streamed across the city, creating visibility for those often left out of conversations around sport and body confidence.
The campaign earned five major global awards, including Cannes Lions, D&AD, and The One Show, and quickly became a case study in purpose-driven design. It united storytelling, engineering and social progress in one literal deep dive.
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‘Underwater Billboard’ elevated Adidas’ commitment to inclusivity through tangible experience – turning the idea of “representation” into something you could quite literally swim in.
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