Give Subtitles to ‘Suicide’, a step to combat rising suicide numbers. Designed and conceptualised by WATConsult for Suicide Prevention India Foundation, the campaign encourages the measures to stop suicides.
With the aim to highlight this issue and mark ‘World Suicide Prevention Day’, Suicide Prevention India Foundation, an NGO creating awareness about suicide prevention and WATConsult, the digital and social media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, launched a campaign, ‘#GiveSubtitlesToSuicide’. The campaign focuses on the importance of identifying suicidal signs among the near and dear ones, as most of the people fail to identify these signs, while some who understand, don't know how to deal with them.
WATConsult's Founder and CEO. Rajiv Dingra, gave us some insights into what went into creating this campaign.
Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.
My Role was strategic planning.
Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?
#Givesubtitlestosuicide is a campaign that leverages the subtitles feature of YouTube to showcase how subtle signs of suicide need to be recognised in order to help those who might be having suicidal thoughts. We launched a video that shows 5 friends and how one of them commits suicide and only when you replay the video with subtitles switched on are you able to read the persons thought who committed suicide. The video ends urging people to sign up for the Gatekeeper QPR program in order to start identifying the signs of suicide and help their near and dear ones.
Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?
The creative brief was to leverage digital media to create an interactive video that clearly communicates the need for Gatekeeper QPR program that helps people learn the signs of suicide and help others.
Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?
The insight of using a simple feature like subtitles but using them to show the importance of being able to read the signs of suicide, helped us create this campaign.
Why was this idea chosen?
We chose this idea because it perfectly leveraged a simple feature and brought about the need for Gatekeeper program.
How did the client initially react to this idea?
The client loved the idea and wholeheartedly backed it.
What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development?
Getting the psyche of a suicide victim right, was important in our film. This is because we didn’t want to create a caricature which was a stereotype.
What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?
The creation process was thoroughly enjoyable. We learnt that, word of mouth spreads really fast if your campaign has merit.
Where do you see this campaign going in the future?
We are planning to create a website that would be a subtitle generator which would decipher the meaning of statements that suicidal people make so that their friends can use such a website and look out for signs and be more vigilant. We are also looking to do offline workshops and engagements to bring on ground impact for the campaign.