Armchair Safari, Do Consulting and Red Agency have joined forces to create a campaign for Tradies National Health Month.

The Australian Physiotherapy Association and its corporate partner, Steel Blue, have teamed up with the production, digital and PR agencies to engage tradies across the country this August.

Armchair Safari, Do Consulting and Red Agency have helped drive the integrated campaign which engages for the first time, high-profile ambassadors including Dave Hughes and The Block superstars Kyal and Kara – a tradie and a registered physio – who take part in activities including a series of quirky and informative videos to promote the ‘Tradies health matters’ message.

Headlining the campaign has been the release of the S#!t Tradies Never Say video starring Hughes.

“Awareness is the first step to promote change,” APA general manager marketing Ruth Heenan said.

“APA and Steel Blue last year identified a clear need to promote holistic health and safety among tradies.

“This year, we brought a fresh approach to the campaign – we didn’t want to go out with a broadcast message, we wanted the message to be engaging and that’s how we came up with the idea of using content like the Dave Hughes video.

“In only our second year, we’ve already had close to 150,000 tradies sign up, had numerous trade and health organisations reach out to share the message, while also receiving widespread endorsement from those who work in the sector.”

Tradies have among the highest number of injuries, musculoskeletal conditions and other health and safety risks of any profession. Musculoskeletal health is imperative for tradies to do their job, and ignoring aches, pain and body stress can result in early retirement and reduced quality of life, Heenan says.

“The campaign is all about tradies seeking treatment early, which includes seeing a physio, to help prolong their working careers and improve general wellbeing.”

Other activities involved in the campaign includes driving tradies to sign up for the Pain Breaker game – aimed to help educate tradies on improving their health and safety in a fun interactive way. It has also included releasing the Stop trading your health away, an Australian Physiotherapy Association Health Report to media and industry stakeholders to raise awareness of the startling health, social and economic impacts of the issue, including that one in five serious workplace injuries involve a tradie, and that musculoskeletal health costs $20.9 billion annually in direct health and lost productivity costs in Australia.