This ad confronts the unspoken prejudices we all have about mental health. An office worker wonders whether he should ask a colleague who's been off with a mental illness "how are you feeling?". We see our guy’s imagination working overtime, going through various fantastical and totally unrealistic scenarios of how the mental illness-sufferer might react; from turning to a pile of sand to shaming him infront of the whole office through the medium of song, before resolving to the truth: that the guy reacts perfectly normally. The ad ends with the title "Don't be afraid to talk about mental health”.

We created a bespoke online social experiment to prove, for the first time ever, the level of discrimination that exists. By placing a mental health sufferer on dating and flatshare sites we gathered clear evidence of people’s attitudes and exposed how prejudice affects the mentally ill in key areas of their social life. After weeks of data collection we could scientifically prove the true extent of discrimination. We then created a multi-media awareness campaign exposing people to their own prejudice before directly challenging them to change their behaviour. The entire social experiment was filmed, creating a documentary and online content, whilst press, radio and digital advertising gave the campaign wider reach and allowed it to benefit from a media multiplier effect. Further information and support was provided by the brand’s website and Facebook page (which has now garnered nearly 40k fans).

Despite our tiny budget, over 6 million consumers recognised our campaign and took in its message. Communication levels were exceptional: 85% came to see that those with mental illnesses face discrimination every day, 78% concurred they could be cruel without meaning to be, and over half admitted the campaign helped them challenge their own assumptions. Plus, 66% admitted to changing their behaviour as a direct result of the campaign. Furthermore, we generated hundreds of thousands of pounds of free PR, extensive radio coverage and the documentary was picked up and broadcast as editorial content on national TV.