This Campaign Encourages Dads to Invite Daughters Fishing for Father's Day

Out of pure curiosity, Colle McVoy Creative Director, Lydia Choi, posed the following questions at a client kick off. “Who introduced you to fishing? Do you still fish? If not, what happened?”

Unanimously, the women at the meeting chimed in with very similar experiences, “Yes, I’ve fished - and my dad/grandpa/uncle taught me when I was a kid. In my pre-teen years though, the invitation to fish fell off. So, I stopped fishing - though my family member still does with friends.”

Nearly two years later, Take Me Fishing is rolling out a national campaign encouraging dads to invite their daughters back out on the water for Father’s Day while echoing the stories of these women and women from across the US.

The campaign seeks to flip trending data identified in the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation’s 2024 Special Report on Fishing - conducted in partnership with Ipsos - that finds adolescent girls stop fishing at an 11% higher rate than male counterparts. The effort builds upon 2023’s 'Find Your Best Self,' campaign, which illuminated how women who fish have more happiness, grit, patience, health and confidence.

“There’s beautiful imperfection in this story that we wanted to claim without making anyone feel bad,” shares Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation marketing director, Rachel Piacenz. “What causes people to fall away from and then back to fishing are subtle - and we see that unfold in how this tradition is passed down from one generation to the next.”

Tales On Tales

Over 1,000 animation artist hours and almost five years (1,728 days) of render time was recorded from when work kicked off in late February until the final animation shipped in late May.

According to the team, it was important to go the animation route to give viewers the canvas space to see themselves in the story. As you’ll see below, many beats in the film were inspired by their own fishing memories.

“We did explore telling this story through live-action. Ultimately we felt animation was necessary for telling the story with the passage of time, giving people the space to see themselves in the animated characters. There’s so much magic to sprinkle around through animation - every expression, texture, lighting and more. We imagined and the talented hands at MAKE manifested even the most minute details,” adds Colle McVoy CD Lydia Choi.

“Fishing is about so much more than just catching a fish,” shares Colle McVoy ECD Dustin Black. “While I wait and watch the bobber in the water with my daughter, I’m making memories I’ll never forget.” And, if you ask Dustin’s kids, they’ll tell you all about how he uses a worm to imitate a moustache while fishing (just like in the animated film).

“The excitement of catching something, even if it was just weeds most of the time, was part of the fun. What I loved most, though, was simply being on the water and the serene, calming presence of nature around me,” shares Colle McVoy account supervisor, Katie Huls. “As I grew older, I drifted away from fishing, but now that I’m a mom with a daughter who loves it, I’ve rekindled my passion for the activity. Watching her light up with joy while fishing has been incredibly rewarding and fun for both of us. We catch the most fish now when we are ice fishing and it is below zero outside, but inside our ‘fish fort,’ as my daughter calls it, we keep it a balmy 70 degrees.”

The Second Catch animated film will receive significant distribution within Disney CTVt hat which includes Disney+, Hulu, and DXP (DXP is Disney’s streaming solution providing reach across Disney’s vast portfolio of TV networks such as Disney kid’s networks, ABC, ESPN, Freeform, National Geographic and more).  

The animated video cuts will run across Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and TikTok.