Mental health firm Calm Collective wants to normalise the idea of men seeking help

Mental health organisation Calm Collective has launched a film campaign titled "Deal With It". The film aims to normalise the idea of seeking professional help for men facing mental health challenges in Singapore by breaking the stigma around it.

The campaign is targeted at men, who might be struggling with mental health issues as well as families and communities who might know of someone facing such challenges. The idea was born out of the insight that outdated societal pressures in Singapore expect men to be “emotionally strong” forcing them to internalise their mental health struggles. As a result, men are reluctant to seek help because they’ve learnt to deal with it.

The idea of the campaign film revolves around questioning the effectiveness of self-talk/self-therapy. The film features a young man as he engages in conversation with his therapist behind the camera. But as the dialogue continues, we begin to realise the reality of his situation - that it was all just his self-talk.

Calm Collective partnered with BBH Singapore which conducted a survey. Its insights confirmed that seven in 10 in Singapore believe that there is an expectation for men to be more emotionally resilient than women. The survey is aimed at understanding barriers around men seeking help for mental health issues – there were polled 1,000 respondents - 542 men and 458 women - between the ages 16 to 54 and above. 

A key finding was that the top reason why men in Singapore will not seek help for their mental health is that they’ve “learnt to deal with it” (53.2%). This attitude is most visible amongst the younger age group of 16-24 where 73.3% cite “learn to deal with it” as their reason for not wanting to seek help. This stands in stark contrast to the top reason why women in Singapore will not seek help for their mental health which is “getting help is too costly” (59.5%).

Freeflow Productions was also involved in the campaign. The film is supported by social media and PR activation and will be launched across digital platforms on 18 November ahead of International Men’s Day on 19 November.MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to BBH Singapore for further information.

Gaston Soto, BBH Singapore group creative director, explained that there’s a lot of stigma around acknowledging mental health issues. Research shows that this habit of brushing off symptoms is even more evident in men who have been indoctrinated by a patriarchal society to deal with everything “like a man”.

According to him, this thought-provoking film aims to shed light on this issue, suggesting that the best way to “deal with it” is by asking for help. "This project means a lot to me and I’m very thankful for our partnership with Calm Collective to make a little difference in Singapore society,” Soto added.

Sabrina Ooi, Calm Collective's founder added that Calm Collective was founded in response to losing two dear male friends to suicide. "This jolted us to break the stigma and to normalise mental health conversations in Asia, and amongst men. The survey findings were especially interesting for us, though not surprising," she said.

"We are culturally and socially conditioned to place unrealistic expectations on men. For instance, men are told from a young age that 'boys don’t cry' and being emotional only makes them look weak. They’re expected to appear strong, stoic and “emotionally resilient”. But emotional resilience is not about repressing one’s emotions, but by embracing them fully and turning to support systems for help. This needs to stop – men need to stop questioning themselves and bottling up their challenges if they are struggling mentally, else it will be too late,” Ooi added.

Separately, BBH Singapore appointed Chris Chalk as chief strategy officer. Chalk would oversee strategic thinking across a number of accounts within BBH Singapore’s portfolio, which includes the likes of Nike and Mulberry, as well as nurturing and developing the agency’s planning talent.

Chalk brings 30 years of experience and expertise in his move to Asia. He has had board-level positions at Cheil, Saatchi & Saatchi, MullenLowe, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, and TBWA\Chiat\Day. According to Chalk, Singapore’s BBH team has shown how Eastern and Western cultures are able to blend successfully, which many clients are still trying to understand as they seek to position their brands for a truly global audience.

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