FCB Durban invites viewers to 'Get Wet'

Comprising an aquarium, restaurants, shops, a beach area and a 'wet and wild' theme park, UShaka Marine World opened to the public earlier this year.

The 30-second television commercial, which broke at the beginning June, was overseen by FCB Durban's executive creative director, Mike Bond. It opens innocently enough showing children playing on tubes in the water. Before long, the visual cuts to an underwater scene and a shark... and then back to the children, and back to the shark who is circling closer and closer. As the predator lunges forward, he is halted in his tracks - by a glass window.

The pay-off line, 'Wet Yourself', alludes to the physical state of visitors to the water park but also to the adrenaline rush and fear those visiting the aquarium may feel when they come face-to-face with the fiercest residents, the sharks.

FCB Durban managing director, Derek Coles, acknowledges that the line is a little risqué but applauds the client's decision to use it because it encapsulates the care-free nature of uShaka.

He adds: "You'd be amazed how much attention the ad has attracted, from people concerned about the shark's welfare. Ironic, isn't it? But I can admit that no harm came to the shark during the filming of the commercial."