Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people feature.
Brisbane-based social change agency Carbon Creative has developed the Take a Step advertising campaign to promote mental health and reduce youth suicide in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The campaign launched this week and was co-created with headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people from around the country who had lived experience of mental ill-health.
Research shows Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples aged 24 and under are three times more likely than other young people to die by suicide.
The campaign encourages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to recognise the signs that something’s not right and provides small, practical steps towards feeling better, such as ‘doing something that makes you feel good.’ It targets the 12-25 age group.
Carbon Creative Managing Director and Birri Gubba man Wayne Denning understood the sensitivities of the campaign.
“We spent a lot of time working with headspace, community elders and young people before any creative was developed to ensure we not only understood the challenge but could co-create something real and meaningful with them that would really resonate,” Denning says.
The agency commissioned artificial rocks for the set to honour the cultural significance of the rocks and land they filmed on, particularly in Alice Springs.
Take a Step draws on connections with spirit, ancestors, culture and Country and uses rocks marked with feelings such as ‘sad’ and ‘anxious’ as a metaphor to represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people’s emotions, experiences or challenges that might weigh them down.
Denning: “Everyone featured in the campaign are not actors. While that can sometimes make things tricky, in this case it helped to lend the campaign a real sense of authenticity that we hope will help it connect with audiences so it can really make a difference.”
The campaign will roll out on television, including National Indigenous Television (NITV), radio, including regional radio, social media, across AFL and NRL matches on FOX SPORTS, national Spotify audio channels, regional cinema, and large-scale billboards.
Credits:
Indigenous Consultant: Wayne Denning
Group Account Director: Rebecca Blinco
Senior Account Manager: Sarah Fitzpatrick
Producer: Angela Hueppauff
Co-Creative Directors: Monique Kneepkens & Sandra Hind
Creative: Monique Kneepkens, Lieve Torbeyns, Thomas Rogers, Dean McGrath, Lizzy Anderson, Sandra Hind
Director: Tristan Houghton
Photographer: Tristan Houghton
Indigenous Art: Jasmine Craciun
Post-Production: 3P
