Canadian Mental Health Association breaks mental fitness campaign
By Adnews Staff
The Canadian Mental Health Association has released public service campaign to coincide with Mental Health week. The campaign reminds viewers to look after their mental fitness as well as their physical fitness. The initiative is the result of the association's receipt of the inaugural Good Cause Award in September, a competition which won them approximately $2 million in donated creative development, production and media placement. The multimedia campaign, developed by DDB Canada, uses the tagline, "It's one thing to look after your body. Just don't forget about your mind." Its intention is to convince viewers that mental health is as important to overall well-being as physical health. Three 30-second television commercials have been created. The ads parody infomercials and reality shows. In one ad, called "Makeover Show," a cosmetic surgeon tells a young woman that every part of her body could be physically improved. The ad ends with the woman at home, sitting next to her mother on a couch. She says, "I'm sick of looking like the person my mother gave birth to." The print ad, called "Gym," shows a gymnasium full of physically fit men and women working out. Because of the way the equipment is arranged, however, they all appear to be headless. All the ads in the campaign direct viewers to the association's new website at <http://www.cmha.ca>. "Today's North American culture is health-conscious almost to the point of obsession, and yet, not a lot of people associate a healthy state-of-mind with overall fitness," said James Lee, senior copywriter at DDB Canada. "With this campaign, our goal is to get people thinking about including mental health in their overall health regime and to take steps to ensure their minds are just as strong and healthy as their bodies." The campaign broke yesterday and will run until the end of the year on CanWest Global TV stations and in CanWest newspapers nationally. The Good Cause Award is sponsored by CanWest Global Communications, DDB Canada and Telus.