Title | THE HIDDEN PAIN |
Brand | SAMARITANS OF SINGAPORE |
Product / Service | SUICIDE PREVENTION HELPLINE |
Category | A10. Typography |
Entrant | PUBLICIS SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE |
Entrant Company | PUBLICIS SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE |
Advertising Agency | PUBLICIS SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE |
Name | Company | Position |
---|---|---|
Issac Goh | Wishing Well | Digital Imaging Artist |
Michael Kan | Shooting Gallery Asia | Photographer Producer |
Sebastian Siah | Shooting Gallery Asia | Photographer |
Lynn Cheng | Publicis Singapore | Agency Producer |
Pei Ling Ho | Publicis Singapore | Senior Copywriter |
Jia Ying Goh | Publicis Singapore | Senior Art Director |
Kris Ng | Publicis Singapore | Associate Creative Director |
Ajay Thrivikraman | Publicis Singapore | Chief Creative Officer |
In all suicide prevention outreach efforts, the greatest barrier is the tendency for people in distress to hide their emotional pain behind a mask of normal behavior. Unless one has experienced the effects of depression, it is difficult to identify who is at risk of suicide. So the key objective is to find a simple but impactful design solution that makes people realise there is more than meets the eye where suicide is concerned, and creates the urgency to proactively learn the warning signs of suicide.
It’s a global fact: a large number of suicides are preventable if the people around potential suicide victims recognise the warning signs and get them help in time. In Singapore, where the number of suicides is at an all-time high especially amount teens, the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) wanted to raise awareness among the public, encourage them to look out for their loved ones and use SOS’s 1800 helpline for support and advice.
In the process of discovery, we realised a common theme among people at risk of suicide. They are reluctant to share what they really feel inside. Instead, when people enquire about them, they just put up a false front and claim everything is fine when it’s not. The dichotomy of what they say and what they really feel became a powerful, perception-changing idea expressed in a series of hard-hitting graffiti-style ambigrams that reveal the true feelings of depressed people when turned upside down.
Without any seeding, the ambigrams went viral in 5 days: • Viewed 5 million times in 8 languages • Reblogged 190,000 times on Tumblr and blogged by mental health professionals • Shared 15,000 times on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter • Commented 1,000 times on Reddit and Imgur • Featured on news sites like Huffington Post, FastCompany, Strombo on CBC Canada, Laughing Squid • Recreated by teenagers on their respective Instagram accounts More importantly, the Hidden Pain campaign was able to open up frank discussions by people about their personal experiences with depression, and share their countries’ national helplines online.