
Curiosity sparked at a client kickoff meeting nearly two years ago has led to a heartwarming national campaign by Take Me Fishing. Minneapolis-based creative agency Colle McVoy’s Creative Director, Lydia Choi, posed a poignant question to the room: “Who introduced you to fishing? Do you still fish? If not, what happened?”
The answers from the women in attendance were strikingly similar. Many had fond memories of fishing with their dads, grandfathers, or uncles as children, but as they reached their pre-teen years, the invitations to fish dwindled.
These shared experiences have inspired a new initiative aimed at rekindling the bond between fathers and daughters through the timeless activity of fishing.
The initiative is driven by concerning data from the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation’s (RBFF) 2024 Special Report on Fishing, conducted with Ipsos. The report highlights that adolescent girls stop fishing at an 11% higher rate than their male counterparts. This campaign builds on the 2023 “Find Your Best Self” campaign, which highlighted the positive impacts of fishing on women’s happiness, resilience, patience, health, and confidence.
The campaign, titled “Second Catch,” is rolling out just in time for Father’s Day, encouraging dads to invite their daughters back to the water. Watch the beautifully crafted animated short, created in collaboration with Minneapolis-based MAKE Studio, below:
REELated:
“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 mustache 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.”
Behind the Scenes: The Making of “Second Catch”
The creation of the animated short was a monumental effort, involving over 1,000 hours of animation work and nearly five years of render time. The animation approach was chosen to allow viewers to see themselves in the story, capturing the passage of time and the magic of 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.
Wide Distribution
The “Second Catch” film will be widely distributed, receiving significant airplay within Disney CTV, which includes Disney+, Hulu, and DXP. Additionally, the animated short will be showcased on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok. The campaign also collaborates with TikTok’s Creator Exchange, featuring content from two Dad creators and two Daughter creators to further spread the message.
Marketing Director of RBFF, Rachel Piacenz, noted the campaign’s goal to highlight the subtle ways traditions are passed down through generations. “There’s beautiful imperfection in this story that we wanted to claim without making anyone feel bad,” Piacenz said. “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.”
As the campaign rolls out, it aims to flip the trends and encourage more girls to continue fishing into their teenage years and beyond, fostering a lifelong connection with nature and family. For more information and to watch the animated short, visit the Take Me Fishing website or follow them on social media.
CREDITS:
BRAND: Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation
- Rachel Piacenza, Senior Director, Marketing
- Bruna Carincotte, Director, Public Relations & Communications
- Joanna Lario, Sr. Digital Marketing Manage
- Joanne Martonik, Senior Manager, Stakeholder Marketing & Communications
- Stephanie Vatalaro, Strategy & Operations SVP
- Dave Chanda, President & CEO
- Charles Neville, Sr. Manager of Digital Operations
- Monica Gamboa, Social Media Manager
- Claudina Hannon, Digital Content Manager
AGENCY: Colle McVoy
- Ciro Sarmiento, Chief Creative Officer
- Dustin Black, Executive Creative Director
- Lydia Choi, Creative Director
- Greta Hatzung, Designer
- Kelly Herring, Copywriter
- Allison Sadeghi, Senior Producer
- Mike Schwab, SVP Group Director, Client Leadership
- Dave Fransen, SVP, Exponent
- Andrew Miller, VP, Group Earned Creative and Media Relations Director
- Merideth Hagerty, Associate Earned Creative Director
- Jess Coyne, Account Supervisor, Creator Marketing
- Matt O’Keefe, Account Supervisor, Earned Media
- Sarah Baldus, Associate Account Director
- Katie Huls, Account Supervisor
- Alli Bolger, VP, Group Brand Strategy Director
- Hannah Erickson, Project Manager
SPECIALTY PARTNER: GWOOP/EVITE
Gavin Lee, CEO, Co-Founder
PRODUCTION COMPANY: MAKE
- Creative Director: Danny Robashkin
- Executive Producer: Oren Robashkin
- Producer: Aaron Dabelow
- Animation Director: Andrew Chesworth
- Technical Director: Aaron Dabelow
- Story Artists: Alec Soelle, Alex McKenzie, Josh Schneider, Kevin Wisdom
- Designers: Jacklyn Heeyun Kim, Josh Schneider, Menghan Wang, Pei Hua Yang
Rayna Buxton - 3D Artists: Alex McKenzie, Angie Orbeta, Anushka Sudhakar, Cody Vinson, Daniel Blanco Ramos, David Almeida, Dusty Smith, Felix Eyal, Guga Baraldi, Jean Moreno, Jeffer Rossi, Jesus Gutierrez Fernandez, Joe Kim, Jordan Powers, Jun Liu, Kevin Wisdom, Lauren Carr, Ling Zhao, Lisa Cui, Paola Velez-Miranda, Riley Eastman, Sofia Tonin, Stanley McNeiece, Szu Yu Liao, Zaini Jalani
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