In anticipation of the 2021 Summer Olympics, Kelly Slater joins Kona Brewing Company in their “Dear Mainland” ad campaign. Kelly appears in three spots (below) pairing Kona Brewing’s beer with a day hanging at the beach .
For Parker Channon, creative director at Kona’s agency of record, Duncan Channon, the timing was ideal. “With surfing in the games for the first time and the chance to work with arguably the greatest surfer ever, we couldn’t resist,” Channon said in a statement. “It certainly didn’t hurt that Kelly spends most of his time on the islands and, despite all his high-performance heroics, is a seriously low-key dude.”
The Slater-starring ads — titled “Surf Lesson,” “Board Meeting” and “Great Day”— show Slater by the ocean sharing beers with Kona’s beloved “Bruddahs,” two locals who embody the spirit of the islands. The spots will run across broadcast television, digital, social media and radio.
In tandem with the campaign, Kona Brewing Co. will make a $50,000 donation to the Save the Waves Coalition, an organization dedicated to conserving surf ecosystems and beach clean-up.
