(UPDATE 10/11/06 - the statistics were updated before the poster hit the presses. Revised image above.)

Wow. Okay, cats and kittens, what do you think of this campaign?

We got this image and an accompanying press release from a PR agency on behalf of a charity. To mark World Mental Health Day, CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably, which is a fantastic name) is launching a new billboard campaign to raise awareness of the high suicide rate in young men. There's also a Web site, a help line, and radio ads.

The one Brit I've spoken to who's seen this ad was deeply unhappy with it. Here were our impressions as we discussed it:

- CALM says that suicide is the second biggest killer of 15-34 year old men in the UK, and they want to encourage discussion by any means necessary. We acknowledged that this ad does indeed encourage discussion. Demands it.

- Highlighting that statistic is good - most people are probably unaware of the extent of the problem.

- Suicide bombing is not suicide: it's murder. Juxtaposing the two for shock value is...well, it's certainly a tactic, but equating men who committed suicide because of depression with men who blew themselves up in order to kill innocent people is repugnant. (Maybe we could have a 9/11-based campaign here in the States: "Last year, more than 30,000 Americans did al-Qaeda's job for them.")

- We don't see how this billboard will reach the at-risk group of 15-34 year old men who are unable to talk about their problems. It may reach others, though. (I do like the Web site.)

Speaking of the Web site, it just struck me that if the idea is to get young men to talk honestly about what's really bothering them, something like PostSecret might be an effective way to do that.


Tags: suicide, CALM, suicide bombing, shock tactics