Campaign Against Living Miserably

A perfectly weighted piece of messaging. This film for CALM by Witness Studios' directing duo Simon+Ben is a perfectly weighted piece of communication, exercising supreme sensitivity in the immensely tricky area of suicide prevention. Not only that, it offers practical advice to those affected by the difficulties that can lead to suicide, and provides a pathway to those concerned about their friends. Too often the self-aggrandising instincts of the advertising industry eclipse the required sensitivity when addressing this most difficult of issues. While the ideas contained in other work can be affecting, it can raise awareness of suicide in the most unhelpful way imaginable. It has long been known that when there is a suicide in a drama, it can spur troubled people to emulate the act, and, accordingly, attention is always drawn to helplines at the end of any programme with a depiction of suicide. Similarly, when public figures take their own lives, newspapers and broadcast media often avoid describing their deaths as suicide. in both cases, there is a recognition that it can be harmful to shine a light on suicide without consideration of how it might affect those in the grip of ideation. It is something the advertising industry needs to be mindful of as well. Simon+Ben's film is an incredibly good example of how this can be achieved responsibly. It tackles the issue with measured straightforwardness and, vitally, as the film unfolds and it becomes clearer that it is specifically addressing suicide, it contains more and more practical advice for those who are worried about someone they know. It also avoids the harmful phrase 'male suicide'... whilst it is true that more men than women take their own lives, the continuous underlining of this seems likely to strengthen this connection rather than loosen it. Instead, as here, it makes sense to draw attention to the personality traits that lead to this tendency, without making them gender specific. It is clear that everyone behind this has thought very deeply about its impact, and this film successfully draws a distinction between awareness of suicide, which is often unhelpful, and awareness of suicide prevention, which is what is needed.