Elmo wants you to hum to improve your mental health

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Sesame Workshop, the global impact nonprofit behind Sesame Street, is highlighting the benefits of humming for people’s overall emotional well-being with a new video featuring Elmo and his friends.

Done in collaboration with the Ad Council and developed with Huntsman Mental Health Institute, the "Love, Your Mind" campaign, or public service announcement (PSA), features the characters of the children's show humming together to a song.

Don't miss: How Elmo captured the hearts of the world with just 9 words

Elmo then says that when he feels frustrated, humming a song can make him feel better. He adds that we all have feelings and that we are all here for each other.

The second video PSA will be released in May 2024, along with a robust offering of additional Sesame Workshop resources for families in support of Mental Health Awareness Month.

Sesame Workshop’s approach to emotional well-being offers strategies that support all families, including helping children learn the essential skills they need to understand and manage their big feelings, as Elmo demonstrates using humming in the new PSA video. Fostering these kinds of nurturing relationships is a key component to the emotional well-being of children, it said in a statement.

The “Love, Your Mind” campaign shares this goal with a mission to create a more open, accepting, and proactive society when it comes to mental health.

“The growing mental health crisis is one of the most pressing issues for parents today and children’s needs can so often be overlooked,” said Samantha Maltin, EVP, chief marketing and brand officer at Sesame Workshop. “We know that caring for a child means supporting their whole circle of care, whether that’s parents, teachers or other caregivers. We’re grateful for our partnership with the Ad Council and ‘Love, Your Mind’ campaign through which we can reach even more children and caregivers with these emotional well-being resources.”

Adding to her point, Heidi Arthur, chief campaign development officer at the Ad Council said that we all have a role to play when it comes to supporting and destigmatising mental health, and parents and caregivers are an important part of that equation.

"On behalf of Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council, we’re thrilled to partner with Sesame Workshop to open up more dialogue about mental health and offer resources to support the whole family,” she said.

The PSA video comes a month after Elmo put out a post on social media platform X asking users how they were doing.

Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?

The post quickly began to go viral with 191.4 million views and 16,000 people replying to Elmo at the time and letting him know their honest struggles. Some spoke about losing their jobs, broken relationships, mental health struggles and more.

Some brands also began jumping on the virality train such as Domino's Pizza which responded with a funny meme and OREO, Ritz Crackers and Adobe Photoshop which added a cryptic reply to the post.

Others, such as mental wellbeing app Calm, replied to encouraging Elmo to take deep breaths while others such as suicide and crisis lifelines put out resources to help those who needed it.

Even US president Joe Biden got in on the action and reposted the post saying, " I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds away and get to sunnier days. Our friend Elmo is right: We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbour in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it."

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