Early September saw New Zealand Rugby (NZR) team up with The Movember Foundation for a suicide awareness and support initiative at the All Blacks v Tonga match to turn a moment of silence into a noisy ‘Moment Against Silence’ to drive home a message about talking about mental health.
Following tragic figures showing that more Kiwis than ever before are sadly taking their own lives and that three quarters of them are men, the initiative, developed in harness with the Dentsu Aegis Network, set out show support for these tragic deaths not through silence but through a show of support to encourage people to reach out and to fight the stigma about seeking help for mental illness.
The moment took place on 7 September at 2:21pm, just before the kick-off at the test match in the at FMG Stadium Waikato, when ‘A Moment Against Silence’ was observed by the crowd who were encouraged not to stand in silence but to make as much noise in a show of support for Kiwi men.
The at-stadium event was promoted through a campaign running across outdoor sites and on TV (including an integration into SKY rugby programming throughout the week).
as well as Movember and All Blacks’ social media channels,
| New Zealand Rugby is encouraging fans to take a stand against silence as part of a new campaign, launched today, to support the conversation around mental health and the stigma associated with getting help.
FULL STORYhttps://t.co/p2JreN61xd pic.twitter.com/nZuXGwh9jX
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) September 2, 2019
and ambassador amplification.
“Last year we lost 685 Kiwis to suicide. The Movember Foundation is working hard to shift the behaviour from silence to talking, the most promoted form of proactive therapy for men’s mental health,” explained Dentsu Aegis Network Strategy Director Ryan Jordan.
“Movember is a funding partner of the NZR’s HeadFirst programme and we thought what better way to visualise this behaviour than to work together to reframe a moment of silence, a common practice within rugby fixtures to recognise a loss or tragedy.”
Movember New Zealand Country Manager Robert Dunne added: “I have been hugely excited to work with the Dentsu Aegis team, NZR and HeadFirst on ‘A Moment Against Silence’. This campaign is a true partnership with a network of organisations that have aligned values and passion for the cause. I have no doubt this campaign will positively affect the lives of many men in this country.”
Comment:
A powerful statement which reverses the usual sports crowd reaction in order to drive awareness and to cut through.
The All Blacks are building a strong heritage of in-stadium cause campaigns. Other recent examples of this approach include its 2018 Rainbow Jersey campaign (see case study).
Links:
NZ Rugby
https://www.instagram.com/allblacks/
https://www.facebook.com/AllBlacks
https://www.youtube.com/user/nzrugby
Movember NZ
https://www.youtube.com/user/movembertv
https://www.instagram.com/movember/
https://twitter.com/MovemberNZ
https://www.facebook.com/MovemberNewZealand
Dentsu Aegis Network
https://www.dentsuaegisnetwork.com/
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