Apparently it’s Jordy Smith’s birthday today. But don’t take our word for it, let our friends at M&C Saatchi tell ya about it.

If you don’t recognize the name, they’re the big PR firm with offices in 27 international cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Toyko, etc., and come to us via a long and exciting history.

Read here.

In December 1994, the Board of Directors of Saatchi & Saatchi succumbed to pressure from the shareholders and voted to remove its then chairman, Maurice Saatchi. Maurice founded the famed ad agency with his brother Charles way back in 1970. Maurice subsequently resigned and within a few months many senior executives had also resigned and immediately opened their own agency. They were soon joined by Maurice and Charles Saatchi to create a new business that would become known as M&C Saatchi.

A bit of drama, we love that. Kind of like the surf industry of late.

Anyway, when we saw the email in our inbox with the Saatchi address we were obviously excited to see what they had to say.

Again, let’s read.

Hi Travis, hope all is well! 

This Tuesday, professional surfer Jordy Smith will be another year older, but this year means much more for him than turning 32. 

Jordy is set to represent South Africa in Tokyo 2020, becoming the first South African surfer to qualify for the Olympic Games. This will be the first time that surfing will be part of the games and who better than the number 3 surfer in the world, Jordy Smith, to compete?

In Red Bull’s documentary, Bending Colours, you can watch filmmaker Kai Neville follow Jordy to exotic locations around the world and capture what makes him such a strong athlete. 

Ahead of Jordy’s birthday next week (February 11th), I wanted to see if you would be interested in checking out the documentary and potentially sharing it with your readers. 

Let me know! 

Best,

We found this unsolicited communication very interesting on many levels actually.

First, we are coming up on 2 years now since Travis last worked here. He’s doing this now: Inherent Bummer. And second, Kai Neville, the filmer/producer of the now 8-year-old Bending Colors, is an original founder of What Youth, so yeah, we have seen the movie. It’s pretty good and actually contended in the Best Video category at the 2012 Surfer Poll awards, which was won by Kai’s other entry, Dear Suburbia.

Moving past those small details it did strike us as odd that this movie is the content chosen to push Jordy out there leading up to the Olympics. It also struck us as curious as to who has hired the great Saatchi to run point for Jords? Can’t be O’Neill can it? Perhaps Red Bull? It is their video. Or wait, perhaps it’s the South African Olympic Committee? Or even the International Olympic Committee (IOC) themselves!

We’re baffled. But we have feelers out and we’ll get back with ya on that.

Editors note: Red Bull

Regardless, so it begins.

That being the first of the many attempted exploitations by one entity after another hoping to cash in on the mythical life ring that Olympic surfing is supposed to provide.

The IOC wants youth. The surf trade wants new, unjaded eyeballs. Fernando wants love among nations through surfing, etc.

With all of that anticipation in mind, as well as the above opening salvo from Saatchi, we decided to start a running tally of all Olympic surfing-related media attempts, including pressers, placed content, interviews, and such, of which we deem as requiring additional and proper acknowledgment

Upon the culmination of the Tokyo Summer Games, we will award them in categories such as:

Most inappropriate use of surfer lingo.

Best use of gratuitous girl surfing in a bikini photo or vid.

The Cory Lopez Award for the oldest photo still being used in the window of a convenience store.

Best use of Kelly Slater’s name and fame even though he hasn’t, as of this writing, officially received entry.

The most unflattering portrayal of a surfer.

Etcetera, etcetera.

We’ll keep working on the list. Feel free to send us your thoughts.

hello@whatyouth.com

Oh, and Happy Birthday Jordy!

What Youth