Havas London has teamed up with the Campaign Against Living Miserably and Topshop to create a new clothing-care label that ditches recommended washing temperature information and instead urges young people to look after themselves mentally.
The oversized label will appear on the outside of a new 13-strong garment range going on sale at selected Topman and Topshop stores today (10 October). It contains self-care guidance, including CALM's helpline details, and the hashtag #LetWhatsInsideOut to spark conversation around mental health.
For each item from the range – spanning T-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts and which also carry self-care slogans – sold, £5 will be donated to help fund CALM's helpline and webchat service.
Coinciding with today's World Mental Health Day (Thursday), the work is part of Havas London's ongoing "#LetWhatsInsideOut" campaign for CALM. Marketing activity for the Topshop partnership includes social media, cinema and out-of-home (pictured, below), with a number of pro-bono media placements secured by Havas Media.
A 30-second film has been created, directed by Havas London creative John Ogunmuyiwa through Unit9. It features a young man clearly in distress, as the soundtrack plays screeching white noise. He gradually recovers and his friends' voices become more defined, until he emerges from his episode with a deep breath. "I don't know how to explain it, man," he says.
"Yeah, man, it gets like that sometimes," his mate replies. "Thing is, we don't talk about that stuff."
"We should," he says.
Mark Whelan, Havas UK's chief creative officer, said: "All clothing has a care label inside telling you how to look after it. Our idea was to create a care label on the outside, encouraging people to look after themselves.
"Huge credit to Topshop, Topman and CALM for throwing their considerable weight behind such a simple yet powerful idea to create something so meaningful. Through the money generated from sales and the conversations that will be started, hopefully this initiative will have a real-world impact."
The work was created by Ogunmuyiwa, Aaron Howard, Matt Swinburne, Owen Hunter Jenkins and Brodie King.
Earlier this summer, TV channel Dave used comedy during a four-minute ad break to help knock down barriers preventing men from telling their mates about their mental unease.
This article first appeared on PRWeek sister title Campaign
