While too many people battle with mental health issues, so many organisations are battling to break through the “walls of resistance” and get them the help they need.
For suicide-prevention charity, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) UK, agency, Recipe, has come up with a clever way to engage people with problems lurking under the surface and encourage them to talk about them. It has released a hidden-message YouTube video with YouTube gamer, Daniel Middleton (aka DanTDM), whose channel has 25.9 million subscribers.
At first, the film appears to be a standard game walkthrough. DanTDM walks viewers through a dive into an alien ocean, in video game, Subnautica. Then he tells viewers to go back and hover their mouse over the video timeline. This reveals a message that explains how what someone is feeling on the inside can be very different from what they present to the world.
The video is based on research by the Centre for Mental Health, which predicts that 1.5 million people under the age of 18 will need additional mental health support in England. 84% of men in the UK admitted to bottling up their emotions, with half saying they do this regularly.
CALM’s new campaign follows its first-ever hidden-message video with rugby player, Joe Marler, which was released in November 2020.
Simon Gunning, chief executive of CALM, stated, “In 2021 alone, the CALM helpline had over a million minutes of potentially life-saving conversation, that’s answering a call for help every 59 seconds. With Dan’s help, we want to challenge the culture that prevents someone from opening up and seeking the help they need.
“This film highlights how things can easily get lost between the lines when it comes to talking about our feelings, and not to always take things at face value if you think someone close to you is feeling down.”
Mike Plumridge, senior creative at Recipe, added, “DanTDM has given us a unique opportunity to get in early with young men and show them that it’s okay to not be okay, and that talking about their issues is healthy.”
