LONDON — Hot Octopuss has rolled out a public service campaign to raise awareness around men's mental health.
"Globally, on average, one man dies by suicide every minute of every day, yet men's mental health is still a taboo subject; unfortunately too many men lose their lives as a result," a rep said. "Hot Octopuss often advocates for men's mental health and has released a series of videos of men sharing their struggles with mental health and toxic masculinity in a bid to encourage more men to have this important discussion."
The videos explore emotions and identity, perception and media, masculinity, sex and self-love and general advice.
The campaign is personal to the company's head of creative, Kelly Gordon, who lost her best friend Tom to suicide when both were 19 years old.
"A large contributing factor of Tom taking his own life was the pressure on him as a man within a society that is so quick to judge," Gordon said. "Making the series of videos with men from all different backgrounds was really important to me to demonstrate that men do still hide their feelings."
"As a brand, we want to encourage men to keep talking and to remind them all feelings are valid," she added. "The purpose of these videos is to break the stigma and encourage men from all backgrounds to speak up about their mental health and to speak to their friends and family about anything they’re going through."
The campaign is being promoted on social media with the hashtags #MensHealthWeek2022, #SelfLoveNotStigma and #HotOctopuss.
Find all of the videos on the Hot Octopuss YouTube channel; follow the company on Twitter.
