With Comic Relief releasing a short film and the Tokyo Paralympics finally launching its long awaited campaign, August saw lots of charitable creative work.
Join us as we take a closer look at a mix of our favourite and stand-out industry work launched this month in our latest Good Stuff Round-up…
Comic Relief raise awareness of male suicide
Comic Relief is back with its annual tv advertising campaign and this year it’s taken a poignant turn by raising awareness for male suicide.
94 men take their own life in the UK each week, which equates to 75% of the total suicides in the UK. Comic Relief teamed up with award-winning filmmaker and writer, Harry Hitchens, to create a new short film to raise awareness of the issue that has only been exacerbated by the pandemic.
The powerful ad begins with a reading of a poem written by Harry that tackles the stigma associated with male mental illness. Viewers are shown a variety of familiar scenarios ranging from a family lunch to chatting with friends in a pub, yet in each shot, an empty seat adorns the room. These represent the males who commit suicide each year.
As the film continues, the poem’s focus switches to the significance of males being empowered to come out and confront the stigma around male mental health. Viewers revisit the same scenes, but this time the chairs are occupied by the males who were previously missing.
The commercial captures the importance of talking and emphasises how it can save lives.
With such a sensitive subject on hand, Comic Relief did the campaign justice by raising awareness of such a powerful and important issue.
Boots reposition the brand with ‘Taboo Talk’ podcast
Global pharmacy brand, Boots has launched a podcast aimed at tackling taboo topics in order to reposition the company from a product pusher to a source of advice.
The ‘Taboo Talk’ podcast aims to tackle wellbeing stigmas by addressing issues many find embarrassing from sex, pregnancy, and periods, to anxiety, self-care, and sleep.
The series will welcome celebrity faces such as Rochelle Humes, Laura Whitmore and Jaimie Laing, who will join host Vogue Williams, to candidly express their own experiences.
As it is a reputable and trusted brand, the podcast is hoped to be a source of comfort for listeners who wish to seek advice on issues they may find uncomfortable.
The campaign aims to make listeners feel like they’re in a safe space and not alone with their issues, providing the audience with courage to speak up about any help they may need.
We think this campaign is a great way for Boots to stand out and use its brand’s message as a means of helping the nation to address stigmatised wellbeing concerns. We hope to see a renewed series in the near future.
Tokyo Paralympics launch decade-long ‘We The 15’ campaign
The return of the Paralympics has been highly anticipated and with the release of a long-awaited campaign, it is hoped that this will become the world’s largest disability inclusion movement.
‘We The 15’ is a decade-long drive to improve the lives of 1.2 billion disabled people, who make up 15% of the population.
The global campaign illuminates 125 monuments across all six continents of the world, including the London Eye, Empire State Building, and Niagara Falls, in a characteristic purple hue which is the international colour of disability. The campaign illustrates cross-border commonality among disabled people wherever they live, encouraging disability inclusivity.
Pulse Films has created an uplifting short to commemorate the campaign, with the hashtag #WeThe15, which is intended to reach a global audience of 250 million people, shattering prejudices and highlighting the fact that disabled individuals are ordinary members of humanity.
We’ve loved seeing this powerful campaign unfold over the past month as the Paralympics Games took place. It will be no surprise if this surpasses expectations and unites the nation as one.
Make sure you pay us a visit next month, when we’ll be covering our favourite campaigns and creative projects from September.
Image Sources: 1.) www.wethe15.org 2.) www.youtube.com 3.) www.boots.com 4.) www.wethe15.org
