July 19, 2022

Grinning and bearing it?

Warning: sensitive topic below but we need to talk about it.

The Last Photo, the latest project from Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), hits you right between the eyes. How out of the blue suicide can feel to the loved ones of the deceased, someone they may have been laughing or joking with only the day before.

Just look at these phone clips, the sort of videos we watch, make and share every day. But what's happening behind closed doors, when they are alone with their thoughts?

I think many of us carry some form of sorrow, and whether we feel able to share it depends on the strength of our support network and the extent of our desperation. Or as Harry says of his father Will, "My Dad didn’t want to die, he just didn’t want to experience the pain he felt any longer. He couldn’t see an alternative."

Everyone's baseline of mental health is different, influenced by contributory factors developed over the years. With the quickening pace of life, digital culture perpetuating the illusion of connection/contact, and the mounting strain of the past few years, it's all too easy for a person to feel adrift or alone in their suffering.

Just scroll down the comments to this campaign video. There are a lot of people out there battling depression, grieving, barely hanging in there. They might choose not to show it or not know who to speak to about it.

A youtyube comment about a friend who committed suicide and how their memory (in the form of a photo in their wallet) keeps them from doing the same..

Youtube comment about suicide, smiles and warning signs.png

According to the charity, 125 people take their life each week in the UK – 70% of them are men. A YouGov survey in June revealed that 61 per cent would struggle to tell someone if they felt suicidal, while more than half (51 per cent) said they didn’t feel confident helping someone who is at risk.

Only 24 per cent of people think that someone experiencing suicidal thoughts would also smile and joke, while just 22 per cent of those polled would share happy photos on social media. Credit to CALM for working to raise awareness of the warning signs, if any, and encouraging everyone to have more open conversations about this crucial topic.

Thanks to the families as well for their generosity and compassion in sharing these stories. It's worth reading some of the short tributes.

For more information on the campaign (which included a photo display by South Bank, digital ads and billboards), head over here.

Amar Patel

July 1, 2020

“[Poetry is] a kind of an ingenious nonsense”

by Amar Patel in marketing, poetry

SCDP creative director Don Draper (Jon Hamm) writing in AMC’s Mad Men. One of the books Draper turns to in his existential crisis is poet Frank O’Hara’s Meditations in an Emergency — SCDP creative director Don Draper (Jon Hamm) writing in AMC’s Mad Men. One of the books Draper turns to in his existential crisis is poet Frank O’Hara’s *Meditations in an Emergency*

Sir Isaac Newton said that somewhere around the late 16th Century, quoting his teacher Isaac Barrow. Although uttered as a backhanded criticism – with mild disdain at the obfuscation in the craft – it’s that virtuosity, that lyrical alchemy and affecting wonder, that brands have coveted since the early heyday of advertising.

From the poem in a 19th-century Warren Blacking’s shoe polish ad, to the worldplay in classic slogan “Beanz Meanz Heinz” and Dead Poets Society teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) invoking Walt Whitman in an Apple ad as he asks, “What will your verse be?”, examples abound.

In his book The Science of Story, Will Storr explains how the weapons of poetry – metaphor, simile etc – deployed in prose writing activate our neural regions, giving the language deeper meaning and sensation. That’s the benefit of choosing “she shouldered the burden” over “she carried the burden”, for example.

“A successful poem plays on our associative networks as a harpist plays on strings,” he writes. “By the meticulous placing of a few simple words, they brush gently against deeply buried memories, emotions, joys, traumas, which are stored in the form of neural networks that light up as we read. In this way, poets wring out rich chords of meaning that resonate so profoundly we struggle to fully explain why they’re moving us so.”

But is verse in an advert really a poem if its goal is to sell? This age-told tension between art and commerce goes under the microscope again in a new BBC Radio Four documentary hosted by copywriter and poet Rishi Dastidar. In it, he traces the history of “words pressed into service on behalf of sales”, drawing on the musings of WH Auden, George Orwell, Clive James and Don Draper among others.

Amar Patel

May 29, 2018

Five fabulous charities that do marketing differently

by Amar Patel in marketing

Last week I was researching the charity sector for a potential copywriting project. It has become a very congested space, with at least 168,000 companies of all shapes and sizes operating in the UK. Good news, right? That’s more people trying to make society a better place. But if you are a charity, it also means more competition for someone’s money, goodwill and attention.

Amar Patel