THE ASSIGNMENT: I was commissioned to photograph a campaign for Glacéau Vitaminwater celebrating the extraordinary abilities of athletes competing in the Winter Olympic Games. Working with the International Olympic Committee and members of the Canadian Winter Olympic team, the goal was to create a series of ads that highlighted the unique talents of each athlete while tying those talents to different flavors of Vitaminwater.

The campaign needed to feel playful, dynamic, and visually striking while still showcasing the product prominently.

The Concept:

To develop the campaign, I began sketching ideas exploring how miniature versions of the athletes could interact with oversized Vitaminwater bottles, turning the bottles themselves into athletic landscapes.

Each concept exaggerated the athlete’s skill with a humorous twist:

• a downhill skier with rocket boosters attached to his skis
• a freestyle skier with helicopter blades spinning above her head
• a snowboarder riding a board powered by hover engines
• a cross-country skier leaving tracks across the bottle surface
• a bobsled racer with a rocket-powered sled

The idea was to celebrate the almost superhuman abilities of Olympic athletes while reinforcing the energy and performance positioning of the Vitaminwater brand.

The Process:

Once the concepts were approved, each ad was photographed in the studio using large-scale Vitaminwater bottles as the environment for the miniature athletes.

The athletes themselves were photographed separately in controlled poses that emphasized motion and athleticism. These images were then composited with the product photography to create the illusion that the athletes were performing directly on the bottles.

Additional elements — including rocket effects, hover engines, helicopter blades, and motion trails — were added in post-production to enhance the playful exaggeration of each athlete’s ability.

Lighting and composition were carefully matched across the entire campaign so that each ad would feel like part of a cohesive visual series.

Final Campaign

The finished campaign consists of six individual advertisements, each highlighting a different Olympic athlete and a different Vitaminwater flavor.

Across the series, oversized bottles become mountains, slopes, and racetracks while miniature athletes perform exaggerated feats of speed, flight, and power.

By combining playful visual effects with clean product photography, the campaign celebrates both the extraordinary talent of Olympic athletes and the energy-boosting qualities of Vitaminwater.

Together, the six images form a unified campaign that balances humor, athleticism, and bold product presence.