Project 84 by adam&eveDDB

Suicide is the biggest killer of young British men. To raise awareness, CALM created 84 public sculptures – each representing a life lost to suicide – with testimonials from the bereaved

This project was selected as Best in Book in The Annual 2019, CR’s award scheme celebrating the best in creativity

Every two hours, a man in the UK takes his own life – that’s 84 men a week. If you’re a British man under the age of 45, you’re more likely to die from suicide than any other cause. Compared with women, men are three times more likely to take their own life: 15.5 deaths per 1,000 for men; 4.9 deaths per 1,000 for women.

According to Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a charitable organisation dedicated to the prevention of male suicide, only 55% of men who’ve experienced depression will talk to anyone about it, compared with 67% of women.

The charity, along with collaborators adam&eveDDB, launched Project 84 in March 2018, an initiative centred around a public art installation, aiming to raise awareness of these statistics. Over a week in March, 84 sculpted statues were installed on the roof of broadcaster ITV’s headquarters on London’s Southbank. Each statue represented one man in Britain who takes his life every week.

To highlight the scale of male suicide deaths in Britain each year, 12 of the statues were installed on the roof of This Morning’s studio; the remaining 72 were visible from the roof of ITV Studios Tower

Crucially, the loved ones of each person were involved in the campaign, providing testimonies and photographic portraits to accompany each statue. The premise of the statues was to help passersby reflect on the impact suicide has on those they left behind, stressing the devastation this kind of death, and the public stigma that surrounds it, can leave in its wake – particularly for families. “It’s unacceptable that so many men are dying from suicide on a daily basis, yet so few people are talking about it,” CALM said.

ITV’s This Morning programme unveiled Project 84 live on air while talking to family members involved in the campaign. Twelve of the figures were installed on the roof of This Morning’s studio building; the remaining 72 were visible from the roof of ITV Studios Tower. “We wanted to make the scale of the situation clear to everyone who sees the sculptures,” says Simon Gunning, chief executive of CALM.

Credits:
Agency: adam&eveDDB. Client: The Cybersmile Foundation. CALM CEO: Simon Gunning. Campaigns Director: Ben Hawley. Group CCO: Ben Priest. CCO: Richard Brim. Deputy Executive Creative Directors: Ant Nelson, Mike Sutherland. Project Manager: Bianca Dubois. Producer: Emilie Verlander. Digital Producer: Rumit Shah. Planning Director: Will Grundy. Business Director: Chris Jackson. Account Director: Adam Patel. Account Executive: Jake Gidley. Head of Design: Alex Fairman. Designer: Scott Silvey. Social Content Creative: Viki Bingham. This Morning, ITV, Editor: Martin Frizell. Senior Producer: Kerry Burch. Production Manager: Jemma Georgiou. Head of Daytime Programme Publicity: Jo Farrelly. Publicity Manager: Sara Nuwar. Content Production Company: Cain&Abel. Director: Robert Spary-Smith. Photographer: Jacinta Crane. Producer: Stuart Henderson. Production Company: Strong & Co. CEO: Deborah Armstrong. Project Manager: Simon Vaughn. PR Agency: W. Founder & CEO: Warren Johnson. Associate Director: Grace Henwood. Account Directors: Jamie Weeks. Accout Managers: JJ Haigh, Oliver Gelb. Senior Account Executive: Tim LeBreton.