UK Sport: advert-top-1 by Tanjun Media

To launch UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport’s (EIS) new Mental Health Strategy, a film designed to challenge perceptions of elite athletes as ‘superhumans’ was released across a multitude of social media platforms. The aim was to promote the importance of creating a positive mental health environment in elite sport where athletes can talk openly and get support.

In conjunction with World Mental Health Day, the 70-second video features UK Sport chair and five-time Olympic medallist Dame Katherine Grainger alongside a host of current Olympians and Paralympians from a wide variety of sports. Cutting between sports and athletes, the video starts by highlighting common perceptions of elite athletes being the ‘fittest’, ‘fastest’, or ‘coping with pressure’, before highlighting the reality that athletes also need to ‘take a break’, ‘ask for help’, and ‘know when they are not ok’, just like everyone else.

Concluding with the call to action ‘Let’s talk’, the overriding message is to try and encourage athletes, as well as everyone else, to talk openly about how they are feeling with a view to both breaking down any fears athletes may have about talking openly about their mental health - as well as using the athletes to role model a positive attitude towards mental health for wider society.

The video exists as part of an overall Mental Health Strategy developed by a Mental Health Steering Group that has representation from leading mental health charity Mind, and will be implemented by Olympic and Paralympic sports towards the Tokyo 2020 Games and beyond. The film, produced by video agency Tanjun Media, had a total turnaround period of just under three weeks. In the first 24 hours the video received 61k views and 220k impressions on Twitter, while on Facebook it reached 137k people with 33k views – all with no paid social spend.