Poignant Samaritans of Singapore suicide prevention campaign goes viral online

What began as an ongoing awareness campaign created by Publicis Singapore for Samaritans of Singapore’s local outreach programme leading up to World Suicide Prevention Day in September, took on a life on its own as news outlets, culture sites, youth and netizens- amounting to over 3.5 million impressions within the first week – began sharing, commenting and recreating the visually-arresting print ads.

Based on the insight “Pain isn’t always obvious”, the Hidden Pain campaign grabbed the online community’s attention and resonance through graphic ambigrams that reveal the true picture of depression when the ads are viewed upside down.

Poignantly, the words “I’m fine” changes into “Save me”, “Life is great” into “I hate myself” and “I feel fantastic” into “I’m falling apart”, as a plea to the community to read the warning signs in time and help those in distress.

And the online community was quick to connect with the message, and champion the importance of looking out for each other and reading the warning signs in time to save a life.

Within the first week alone, the Hidden Pain campaign was reblogged 170,000 times on Tumblr, viewed 130,000 times on Imgur, 3 million times on Reddit and shared by tens of thousands of people on Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon and Instagram.

The importance of its message was also covered and opined on Huffington Post UK and US editions, FastCompany, Strombo on CBC Canada, Buzzfeed, Laughing Squid, Design Taxi and other news and culture sites.

The ads were also translated into Chinese, Russian, French, Italian, German, Polish and Hebrew by influencers in these countries.

But there were even more surprises to come.

The thousands of comments that arose from the Hidden Pain campaign departed from the usual “I like it/ I hate it” milieu. Instead, people began to use the comment threads on Reddit and Imgur to share about their personal depression experiences, and encourage each other to cherish their lives.

Teenagers also began recreating the ambigrams, and sharing on their Instagram networks.

And perhaps, as the most visceral proof of a campaign’s effectiveness, Huffington Post US reported a incident where New York’s prestigious Lowell Hotel, whose 1800 number was identical to SOS’s Singapore hotline, received numerous calls for help from Americans in crisis.

Till date, the Hidden Pain campaign has been featured on AdAge as its Pick of the Day, BestAdsonTv’s Best Campaign of the Week, Creativity Online’s Top 20 Ads showcase and Ad

Week – proof that suicide prevention is everybody’s business, and the power of an idea to connect where it matters.

Credits:

Digital Imaging: Issac Aloysius Goh