Breaking campaign: The Brand Shop launches suicide prevention campaign
STW-owned The Brand Shop is launching an integrated campaign to promote a new national suicide prevention initiative.
The initiative, R U OK?, which will culminate in an R U OK? Day on November 29, will be supported by a pro-bono campaign involving print, radio, TV and online platforms aiming to raise awareness of the signs of depression and suicide.
The campaign, created by 10 STW agencies including The Brand Shop, Alpha Salmon, AMR Interactive, Ikon, Ogilvy Healthworld and Yello, is being supported by News Limited which has made a three-year advertising commitment to the initiate and will also distribute special information guides in its newspapers on November 29
The TVC and radio ads, narrated by actor Jack Thompson, will appear across all free-to-air TV stations, Foxtel and YouTube, and the Macquarie, Austereo and DMG Radio Networks. It focuses on the Australian mentality of “She’ll be right” when in trying situations, when often that is not the case, and encourages people to ask the simple question of “R U OK?”
The campaign website, www.ruokday.com.au, has direct links to key sector websites and provides tips on how to have a conversation with someone deemed not to be OK.
The initiative, which will also include an R U OK? Arvo on November 27 for Australian businesses was the brainchild of The Brand Shop MD, Gavin Larkin, whose father took his own life in 1995.
