The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
Modibodi's Shark Week stunt: a freediver swims with sharks while on her period
To prove its leak-proof period swimwear, Modibodi sent freediver and marine biologist Brinkley Davies into the water with sharks while menstruating.
Modibodi
What it had to solve
Modibodi makes leak-proof period swimwear and wanted the ultimate proof of it in a category where swimming on your period is wrapped in fear and shame. One act had to prove the product worked, debunk the surrounding myths, and change the conversation in a single move.
How it works
Modibodi makes leak-proof period swimwear, and its category carries a heavy myth: swimming on your period is treated as something to fear or hide. To change that narrative, the campaign needed a proof so visible it would settle the question in public.
The brand partnered with freediver and marine biologist Brinkley Davies, who swam with sharks while on her cycle wearing Modibodi's leak-proof swimwear. The single act did several jobs at once: it tested the product under maximum risk, confronted the fear directly, and gave the media a story that could travel.
According to the D&AD entry, the act generated over 61M in global reach and +7% year-on-year growth, reframing the conversation around period swimming from fear and shame to empowerment. D&AD keeps the work in its awards archive, listed among Film winners.
Why it lands
- Staging the proof in open water with real sharks puts the product where the fear lives, so the demonstration outranks any claim or lab test.
- A marine biologist and freediver as the test subject gives the stunt credibility instead of a model performing a dare.
- One act collapses three messages — leak-proof, myth-busting, empowerment — into a single image that earned and social media can carry.
- Naming the work Shark Week ties the test to the annual cultural moment when sharks dominate screens, so the film joined a conversation already in motion.
What it did
The entry reports over 61M in global reach and +7% year-on-year growth for the brand, with earned and social noise that reframed swimming on your period from fear and shame to empowerment.
What you can take
The strongest product proof is staged where the fear lives: one filmed act by a credible athlete can debunk a myth and give a functional product an empowerment story.
Since then
The work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive, which credits Modibodi as the brand and lists the entry among Film winners. The page names no agency, so the case stands on the single filmed act and its reported outcomes: 61M+ global reach, +7% year-on-year growth, and a public conversation shifted from fear and shame toward empowerment.
Sources
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