Real Talk

One in four teens in New Zealand lives with anxiety. So ASB Bank and mental health charity Youthline teamed up with New Zealand pop sensation Benee to create Bagels, a track scientifically crafted to soothe anxious minds. The song fused binaural beats, focusing frequencies and serene visuals, achieving more than 10m streams and a corporate reputation score of +9.9. It shows how to make mental health support accessible and engaging for young people by leveraging pop culture.

A film from UK support service Frontline19 addressed the critical need for mental health support among National Health Service workers. Set to a minimalistic soundtrack, it highlights the mental health issues experienced by 50% of health service workers. Donations surged by 1548%, enabling the charity to provide 2865 hours of essential therapy, illustrating how candid narratives and thoughtful sound design can drive support.

Reinforcing the subtlety of mental health challenges, suicide prevention charity CALM disrupted perceptions of what ‘suicidal’ looks like. Launched on the charity’s long-term partner ITV’s This Morning show, the gallery of 50 images boosted donations by 400% and led to a 33% rise in conversations mentioning suicide. It shows how to present a simple truth in an authentic and unapologetic way.

Aiming to curb the social media accelerated popularity of young children using elaborate skincare routines before their years, Dove used striking imagery to ask: ‘When did 10 stop looking like 10?’ With a 209% increase in online conversation among parents about the issue, ‘10 vs 10’ is an example of how to empower parents to initiate conversations with their children about self-esteem.

One in five young French people suffers from depressive disorders. And the topic remains stigmatised. With getting a taxi a common behaviour among young people, ride-hailing provider Heetch built bridges between specialist mental health drivers and passengers. In the first week, over 1000 ‘first conversation’ rides were booked, showing how to integrate mental health support into everyday actions like travelling by taxi.

With bullying among students in Greece increasing 200% through 2023, the Greek Ministry for Education, Religious Affairs and Sports needed to bring attention to the scale and seriousness of the problem. The resulting film, ‘Stop Bullying’, highlights peer pressure and the vicious cycles of bullying to encourage students to stop and parents to take notice. Achieving 5m organic views, the work is an example of preventing harmful behaviour at the source.