Want to Do Better for Consumer Mental Health? Maybe Stop Talking About It

Another year, another Mental Health Awareness Month has come and gone. We see so many brands launching campaigns of awareness or empowerment. M&M’s anxious Orange character embracing "his true self, worries and all"; McDonald’s removing the smile from its Happy Meal Boxes; Oreo and Microsoft teaming up to tackle record levels of burnout and work-related stress by encouraging workers to take time for themselves—these campaigns no doubt shine a light on individuals’ struggles. But are they doing more harm than good, no matter how well-intentioned? When you only focus on the communication and not on long-term structural commitment to change, you risk trivializing the crisis. This recent headline says it all. Too many of these campaigns or initiatives are signed off because somewhere there’s a report that says, “Mental health is a big thing—let’s use it as a driver for commercial success.” Another problem with this approach is that it reinforces the representation of mental health as an issue of awareness-raising only. Getting people to talk about their struggles alone won’t move the needle enough. We’re facing a massive crisis. A recent study showed that climate anxiety, for example, is widespread in children and young people across the globe and is affecting their daily functioning. According to the World Health Organization, depression is a leading cause of disability globally. So, it’s questionable whether any communications campaign can even make a dent. Business models for change The real solution needs to be about creating business models that are more beneficial to us so that we don’t live in a world of growing anxiety—whether that’s due to bigger threats like the climate crisis or individual challenges such as self-image and confidence. It’s about regeneration, the idea of a circular economy, and limiting the drain on resources. We talk about sustainability a lot, but it should apply just as much to people. Having a brand or organizational approach to mental health is about respecting people, rather than seeing their psychological states as another resource to be mined. Arguably FMCG corporates are not well placed to work toward such change. By definition, "fast-moving consumer goods" and their promises of reward and benefits aren’t the most helpful of items for someone suffering from anxiety or low self-esteem. We need to remind ourselves that context matters. If you’re in a position as an organization to play a genuine role, in educating or supporting, then there’s a need for that—as with Norwich City FC and its "Check in on those around you" ad last year, for example. But unless the commitment is real, long-term, and fundamental, it’s probably best left alone. Reappraising tactics Perhaps it’s for smaller organizations to lead the way here. Lush is a good example of a business building tenets of mental health from the ground up. Its infrastructure and purpose are built to further self-care and well-being through a relatively sustainable product and investment in mental health across the organization. But it’s also an example of a brand reappraising accepted marketing tactics and their effect on people, deciding to turn its back on social media’s TikTok, Instagram, and co. until they provide a safer user environment. Lush is actively shrinking its brand world to alleviate the overwhelming and promote mental health in the long term, not just looking at it as "this year’s trend." Another example is Veja, which has done away with ads, marketing, brand ambassadors, and all the modern trappings of encouraging people to spend more. Instead, it’s putting its energy into its production chain, its workers, and the environment. U.S. outdoors company REI, meanwhile, famously ditched Black Friday and its associations with frenzied consumption. It gives its employees a day off instead. Even though the co-op doesn’t overtly talk about mental health, it embodies a business model that inherently promotes it through its inclusive culture and an ethos of connecting with the outdoors and nature. It's so important that brands acknowledge the prevalent marketing environment itself is contributing to the mental health crisis. A brand like Headspace, for example, is perhaps becoming the victim of its success. As it looks to diversify to grow the brand, it has become more complex, with more content and calls to action dropped on users. The constant barrage of digital marketing, with its "buy more, be better, don’t miss out" messaging, can be a huge contributor to anxiety and stress. It’s time to scrutinize more diligently the tools through which we communicate with our consumers. Amazon explored this last year with its "No Screen Summer with Alexa" campaign in India to encourage kids to spend summer with less screen time. Instigating concrete behaviors in this way won’t bring about a profound change immediately, but it does help. Fundamentally, if there’s a business-based way to nurture mental health, it won’t be in launching new products or services or more awareness-raising. We can’t tackle this by fitting the solution into a structure that has exacerbated the problem in the first place. We must create organizations and brands that are built from the ground up to grow a healthier, less anxious, less extractive environment. Otherwise, mental health will sit alongside greenwashing and rainbow washing as mere lip service to be paid when it suits—and abandoned the very next month.

Voice

Want to Do Better for Consumer Mental Health? Maybe Stop Talking About It

Unless the commitment is real, long-term and fundamental, it’s probably best left alone

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Al Deakin

Brand Marketing

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