Ideas We Love: CALM
Issue Number 42: A look at the Campaign Against Living Miserably's stellar creative track record
Hi, how are you?
It’s Super Bowl week and so the obvious thing for us to do would be to cobble together a long-list of the various films that have already started to do the rounds ahead of Sunday’s big game.
We can’t claim to have sat and watched all of the ads that are breaking. Some are really great (well done Uber Eats, Matthew McConaughey and co) and some are a little less great. Irrespective of quality though, you can’t argue that the Super Bowl formula is now well and truly set: more humour, more celebrities, more seconds and more emotion than you might typically see in your average US ad break.
Given the phenomenal costs involved in talent, production and media where this type of spot is concerned many articles covering the topic of Super Bowl advertising describe it as the ‘ultimate high wire act’ in marketing. And whilst we appreciate that this observation is kinda true, the idea which stopped us in our tracks this week is dealing with a subject matter altogether more serious than selling more beer or more takeaway meals.
A new film from UK Suicide prevention charity CALM - the Campaign Against Living Miserably - is the latest chapter in their Missed Birthdays campaign, which launched late last year.
It’s a simple idea. But simple ideas are hard to land brilliantly. The craft skills on display here are astonishing. As parents, we found the result incredibly moving - and the film below is not an easy watch.
We’ll spare you the usual IWL spiel given the sensitivity of the subject matter. However, we can’t help but admire CALM’s approach to communication and how it creates prominence, awareness and engagement with a topic which people might naturally avoid confronting.
Working with media partners like ITV has allowed them to not only distribute their ads, but also to get editorial traction on shows like This Morning. Brand partnerships with male grooming brands like Harry’s add further marketing muscle.
Unlike our Super Bowl advertisers, many of whom play it safe for 50 weeks of the year, CALM are not only dealing with a complex subject matter but are no doubt forced to manage their resources more stringently too. CALM has no choice but to lean fully into commercial creativity, making big bets and leveraging emotional communication to the fullest in order to cut-through and create awareness for their cause and get help to the people who need it.
Across their campaigns Missed Birthdays, Project 84 and The Last Photo CALM - alongside agencies Adam&eveDDB and 7stars - have created an incredibly powerful body of work.
Until next time x