This is not the Speedo that most folks know — and love to ridicule.
No teeny, tiny swim briefs in this ad. None of its former spokesjocks like Michael Phelps or, for heaven’s sakes, Mark Spitz, adorned in Olympic medals. The Speedo of 2015 is, instead, focusing less on competitive swimming and more on everyday water sports. To do that, it’s turned to a Speedo spokesman who few folks might have imagined: a 91-year-old swimmer.
Jurgen Schmidt is a Huntington Beach, Calif., retiree who still swims about a mile almost every day at a Masters team practice. In a three-minute video ad posted by Speedo, Schmidt, a retired comptroller for a meatpacking company who turns 92 next month, offers this telling advice to folks young and old: “Don’t be afraid to get in the water.”
In an interview with USA TODAY, Schmidt, who also cares for his 86-year-old wife, Adrianne, who has Alzheimer’s, says any short-term fame or talk-show visits almost certain to accompany this new commercial aren’t important. “I don’t have an inflated ego. I just have a love of the water,” he says.
Read USA Today
