Project 84 is a campaign for CALM, a charity focused on suicide prevention. The project name derives from the shocking statistic that every week, 84 men in the UK take their lives through suicide.  

That's a suicide every two hours.

The campaign has proven to be of exemplary standard and a huge success.  A petition running alongside the campaign asking the government for suicide prevention to be a government ministers responsibility has nearly hit 200,000 signatures and suicide prevention has been the hot topic on social media.

So why has the campaign been so successful? 

A bold statement.

The charity teamed up with ITV and commissioned iconic street artist Mark Jenkins to produce 84 life-sized sculptors of men, placing them on the edge of the roof on top of the ITV studios in London. If passersby were to look up, they would get a strange and unsettling sight, 84 'men', standing silently on the rooftops, as if about to leap to their deaths.

This was the move that led to headline news across the UK, the chilling photos depicting what looked like a small crowd on top of the ITV studios. ITV's show 'This Morning' broadcast live from outside the studio on an episode focussing solely on suicide. With an estimated 3 million individuals reached daily, the show was the perfect springboard for the campaign.

Sending the right message.

Suicide is a delicate topic, it affects a lot of people and it's incredibly important for an awareness campaign to hit the right note. The Project 84 campaign is a perfect of example of hard-hitting, yet not distasteful.  Whilst I've seen tweets branding the rooftop stunt as 'perverse' and 'insensitive', the overall consensus is the campaign is necessary and has to be bold to break the stigma surrounding the issue.

Excellent support.

A simple, yet effective website and an online petition, all bolstered by online comms and posters offer more information whilst volunteers on the ground are raising awareness of the signs to look out for in people who are at risk.

The team at TINKER TAYLOR know a thing or two about hard-hitting awareness campaigns are we all in agreement, this is an excellent campaign - and one worth shouting about.