Neon Billboards for Mind React to Online Discussions of Mental Health

Mind - a Swedish non-profit organization working for mental health - promotes their new forum for mental health with a series of interactive outdoor ads emphasizing the importance of sharing our emotions with others.

Science says sharing problems with somebody else makes us feel better. Mind wants to spread that knowledge and ease the stigma around mental health issues. Earlier this year they launched the first moderated support forum addressing mental health in Sweden. A platform that is open to anyone and enabling you to share thoughts, feelings and support - anonymously. 

To promote the forum, TBWA Stockholm created a campaign based on five different outdoor ads. Each one carrying neon signs of words like shame, anxiety and loneliness that are connected to different discussions in the actual forum. When somebody writes something, the sign will flicker and subside. Just like the emotions would do, when shared with somebody else.

“We wanted to actually show the effect a normal conversation could have on our mental health, not just talk about it”, says Selene Cortez, project manager at Mind Forum. She continues: “Hopefully the local aspect of the campaign could contribute to cure the conception of us being the only one feeling a certain way, helping us share it instead.”

Each sign carries a word connected to its surroundings. "Loneliness”, for example, is placed in Stockholm - the city with most single households in Sweden. "Hopelessness” and "Shame” are placed in Malmö where unemployment is high, and “Anxiety” stands in Gothenburg where people state to be more anxious than average.

"Driven by the standard creative anxiety, we came up with the idea of a campaign fuelled by similar emotions. This actually enables us to demonstrate the effect of the conversations in the forum and thereby enlighten, no pun intended, people of its existence”, says Lina Franzon, copywriter at TBWA Stockholm.

At Minds support forum you can give and receive support, share tips and advice, share your experiences and learn more about mental health. The forum complements other forums by offering security, expertise and focusing on one of our biggest social challenges - mental illness. The forum is moderated day and night, every day of the year. Visit the forum at forum.mind.se