Ad of the Day: Personal handwritten billboards reveal gripping mental health stories

Since Calling was established in January of this year, it’s always wanted to position itself as an agency that stands for something, evident in this new work for high street mental health service The Self Space.

“When you do that, you stand out. You know, we’re not for every brief. I’m not afraid for us to say that,” says co-founder Josh Tenser. “Because the opposite of that is very powerful. When a client is looking for the thing that we offer, there is magnetic chemistry.”

That meeting of minds, so to speak, became apparent during a fleeting moment that saw Tenser do an on-the-spot pitch for the therapy company. “I was going to a meeting and walked past its flagship store and read the sign outside that said: ‘walk-in therapy’ so I went in and asked who does its advertising,” he explains, adding that he was then put in touch with the service's founding partner Chance Marshall. “We brought the work first and the relationship came later. It was a cheeky ask from me.”

Marshall adds: "We aligned with one vision and in wanting to support people in ways that help them feel seen and heard. Calling has been a great partner for the creative, therapeutic and disruptive elements of the project."

The fortuitous introduction resulted in the agency commissioning real people to write candidly about their state of mind in a series of beautiful letters for the brand. These would eventually be shown on billboards alongside portraits by award-winning photographer Charlie Clift. In their notes, some wrote about grief, motherhood and loss, with themes of forgiveness, vulnerability and love prevalent throughout. They had hundreds of submissions in total, some handwritten, others typed, many that were too heartbreaking to even put on a public-facing medium.

What fellow co-founder Rani Patel wants to make clear, though, is that great care and understanding led this campaign. “There was support given to the writers, they were workshopped, and it was facilitated in a safe space with therapists,” she notes. “All of the individuals were open and positive about being part of the campaign, of course, but it was our duty to make sure that they were safeguarded throughout the process.” The on-set therapists were briefed on the different themes of the letters and were on hand to help if anything was triggering for the participants.

This openness is something that is championed within the agency culture. They have high hopes about having an in-house therapist for their own team in the future. “We’ve both been on our own journeys around wellness and what it means to feel safe mentally in order to create work,” adds Patel. “One of our ethos’s is self-identifying in the work and sometimes that's looking at the joy and the trauma of who you are.” This created a natural synergy between the client and the agency.

Each letter written has become part of a digital library and, from today, will be displayed around Shoreditch. The idea is to open up conversations, a subject close to the duo.

In his previous role as creative director at Uncommon, Tenser wrote the acclaimed Get Britain Talking ad for ITV. “That was a proud moment for me,” he says. “It went on to become the most recognized mental health campaign ever, but my beef has always been, what’s next? Awareness isn’t enough. We want change, nuance, something that pushes it forward.”

The team is hoping that of the hundreds of letters submitted by the public, people will find similarities in the selected writings and find the courage to open up about their own struggles in some capacity. In their words, it’s a radical and deeply intimate way of using outdoor media spaces, normalizing how we talk about mental well-being, while also moving the language forward.

Patel hopes that in five years’ time, this campaign will be a turning point. “When we look back it will be like, do you remember when it was such a taboo to tell someone that you hadn’t an anxiety attack this morning, that you’re feeling really depressed or that you’ve got a newborn but you’re not really sure how to feel about that,” she says. “That's the bit that I’m really looking forward to. It’s part of a new stage in society, a new way of interacting and experiencing life and each other.”

Marshall echoes this sentiment, concluding that his team knows that revealing experiences and vulnerabilities can be difficult, but that it's the first step towards healing and growth. “Our hope is that by sharing these letters, we can break down the stigma around mental health and start a larger conversation about how we can better support each other.

“Each letter moves past the idea that our struggles should be hidden away, they are stories of self-empowerment, of overcoming, of anger, of loss and of love.”