Find your best self on the water with Fern Berresford

Director Fern Berresford’s new spot for the non-profit Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation aka RBFF’s latest national Take Me Fishing campaign was created in open collaboration with creatives at Colle McVoy debuts. 

A feel-good fishing-inspired spot, Find Your Best Self on the Water marks Berresford’s first U.S.-based shoot and commercial work since joining the roster at Rakish, as it highlights empowered women confidently casting their lines into the waters of life and finding their best selves.

Find Your Best Self on the Water was created in promotion of new research from Take Me Fishing, a national brand from the non-profit Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF), conducted in partnership with Ipsos, which showed that fishing provides positive psychological benefits for women, including promoting greater perseverance and grit, The Take Me Fishing 2023 campaign comes just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month. Much has been written about the negative effects of modern life, especially social media, on the mental health and wellness of girls, and as the Take Me Fishing campaign suggests, fishing could offer girls a much needed outlet. Additionally, almost half of female anglers do not feel respected by the broader angling community with more than 1 in 3 feeling stereotyped. This campaign aims to confront these barriers and inspire women everywhere to challenge themselves to try something new to help them find their best self while supporting a more inclusive fishing and boating environment. Working closely with the creatives at Colle McVoy, Berresford visually underscores the research.

Pulling from the witty script written by the agency, Berresford contributes to its subtle humour and whimsy weaves together vignettes of healthy, happy, and capable women of all ages who, after bouts of focused fishing, go on to crush it at the school science fair, make the game winning three-pointer, and even walk on the moon. Each vignette is bolstered by the poetic and awe-inspiring spoken word narration, which describes women as “forces of nature” who draw strength from the waters they fish. 

Berresford’s tendency towards impactful visual storytelling gels with Rakish’s supercharged cinematic vision, as she experiments daringly with engaging characters and dynamic concepts that are saturated with social conscience. This triumphant Take Me Fishing campaign, with its swathes of beautifully-shot nature, engaging female portraiture, and adventurous mood, is no different.

“As with all of art, I think the more diversity and equality in the voices telling the stories the better,” said Berresford. “This spot is all about empowering and inspiring women to try something new, so the message resonated with me.”