A (hopefully) thought-provoking blog about surfing and the sea which has been on holiday to Wavedreamer but has now returned. Please go there for old posts. I'm also a contributor to The Inertia and tweet @aPhilosurfer.
The song Surfin' Bird always pops into my head as I watch a gull ride the updraft in front of a wave. Where is it from and what does it represent?
It was a hybrid of 2 RnB songs first recorded as a novelty single by The Trashmen (from landlocked Minneapolis) in 1963. This toe-curling film and interview indicates it was pure surfploitation.
At least the next band to cover it, The Ramones, actually lived somewhere surfable and treated as a pukka surf punk song, clocking in at a respectable 2 minutes 31 seconds. High Art.
However, the version I hum is by The Cramps which degenerates into slop before reforming into a beautiful wall of sound ready to shred. Sublime.
Surfploitation - using surfing images to sell goods or services unrelated to surfing - seems pretty rife.
At the moment, airing on our screens is the Chanel male perfume advert and a Thomas Cook travel advert.
Perhaps the most famous example is the multi-award winning advert for Guinness. I've never understood the connection between a stodgy stout and surfing and my first surfploitation post outlined my misgivings about the Chanel ad. Much more palatable is the Truro-based Skinners Brewery Betty Stogs ale and Skindog lager. Thank Kahuna, we were saved David Beckham surfing in an ad for Pepsi.
French car companies seem to have been competing with each other a few years ago - there was a Peugeot 106 Quiksilver and a Renault Clio Rip Curl - aimed at young drivers. Both models have apparently now been discontinued.
Even mobile phone, comparison websites and insurance providers have now got in on the act, with a comedy Vodafone and moneysupermarket adverts and a current BUPA advert featuring a pretty inspiring mature lady surfer from Newquay.
The thing is, does surfploitation actually work? Does it sell more 'stuff' than using another sport? Does it sell more stuff to surfers than non-surfers? The fact that its used over and over again would suggest so, although all of the above brands have used other strategies to sell their wares. Was that because the surfing connection didn't deliver the goods? Can any readers provide enlightenment, please?
I doubt the creative luvvies at Chanel are old enough to know they're rehashing the classic 1980s advert for gents aftershave Old Spice. But that's not stopped them using surfing and a hunky surfer to sell perfume to blokes (or more likely, their partners) . The Chanel Allure Homme Sport ad is just the latest example of surfploitation by companies selling their wares, in this case the olfactory essence of surfing (admittedly, it is a nice stall under the lip).
But what DOES a surfer smell like? Chanel think their Allure Homme Sport evokes a' Sparkling and invigorating freshness, a natural and radiant sensibility, heightening the scent of a breeze against bare skin...to create an infinitely seductive allure.'
Bizarrely, when I asked my wife what I smell like after surfing, she said it was more like 'a heady cocktail of decaying neoprene, dilute sewage, crusty saltiness and occasionally stale pee.'
