Campaign Analysis - NHS' "Every Mind Matters"

NHS' "Every Mind Matters"

Introduction 

NHS’s “Every Mind Matters” campaign was launched to support the general public’s mental health, in the UK. During March of 2020, due to the global pandemic, mental health was a major topic of discussion, and so the NHS took this crisis upon themselves to try and help people who got into dangerous situations and how to help others avoid it from the onset. Overall, NHS’ “Every Mind Matters” approach was designed with the aims of making it easier for everyone to look after their own wellbeing and improve their mental health by providing a ‘digital hub’ of advice, tips and resources. They define this foundation and campaign as “an evidence-based tool that shows people how to build simple changes into their daily lives - such as reframing unhelpful thoughts”. 

Target audience 

The target audience for this particular campaign would be mostly people who experienced or experiences mental health issues during quarantine, and are very vulnerable. These people most likely wouldn’t have many family members or friends to be around, thus being forced to isolate by themselves which in turn can create a rather toxic environment for someone. A lot of people in the UK at this time, were very vulnerable and needed help and support in order for them to get out of their dangerous situations – whether that be psychological or even physically. However, it could be argued that another target audience of this campaign would be anyone. Anyone who lived through the pandemic and the following quarantines had to endure many inhumane and awful living conditions due to being stuck in one place, thanks to the lockdown procedures. All of the UK’s population was at risk of having a severe and significant degradation of their mental health, no matter what socio-economic background they were from, how old they were, their gender or even their culture. Covid affected everyone significantly and the NHS took this responsibility into their own hands. In summary, the main target audience of this approach is all adults however weighted towards vulnerable groups those at high risk of mental health problems. 

 

Key Messages 

NHS believed that they could try and help people in need during the period of Covid, whether that was through giving information about how to stay safe or even a possible chat room for lonely and suffering individuals to talk to someone about their problems with. They tried to aid everyone, and every possible thing the general public may have been suffering with. The key messages of the campaign were all things covid: trying to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis and effectively the pandemic of severe mental health degradation; how to help someone you may know who is in a vulnerable and dangerous position due to the lockdown procedure; how to stay safe in general, and avoid contaminating others or becoming afflicted with the virus yourself; about giving out general and hopefully helpful tips on a plethora of different things to those who need them most (e.g. sleeping tips, anxiety-easing emails). 

 

 

 

Engaging an audience 

NHS engage their audience through this campaign by approaching a controversial and sensitive topic lightly, using almost euphemisms (such as “reframing from unhelpful thoughts”) to ensure viewers don’t become triggered by their campaign. Their main way of engagement is via direct contact and communication with the general public. For example, allowing users to sign up to numerous different programmes that are supposed to give expert advice and practical tips to help people deal with different issues. These programmes are mostly completed via emails which is an easy way for people to access the campaign. The theme and topic of “Every Mind Matters” is a subject that most people feel a lot of empathy for, in terms of towards the people who are in these unfortunate circumstances, and so it can create a lot of positiv

e press for the NHS therefore meaning they may get more profit and thus can create more campaigns, like this one – that actually help the general public. Furthermore, they also engage their audience through the employment of exercise. They promote exercise as a way for people to cope and live through these hardships, which is a direct way to engage the audience due to exercise being a huge industry, with many people advocating for it. This transforms the audience from a passive viewer, in terms of merely just reading through tips and watching videos, to an active one, one who may follow along and download the apps this campaign suggests as fitness trackers, helping people’s self-esteem and create goals for them. Once they reach these goals, they feel better about themselves and thus the “unhelpful” thoughts may start to dissipate. They use this as one of many methods to engage their audience’s mind in order for them to start to become more positive and to move away from their negative thoughts and feelings – this may resonate with a lot of people due to effectively everyone feeling anxious and incredibly unhappy at least once in their lives.  

 

How demographics, issues, and stereotypes are used to enforce the campaign. 

NHS’ use of the issue of declining mental health enforces the campaign due to it being the main topic, theme, and overall the purpose of the “Every Mind Matters” campaign. They use many different stereotypes of poor mental health in their promotional footage and videos, as well as stereotypes of positive mental health, to portray and connote a certain feeling towards the audience, depending on what type of response they’re trying to garner. Their use of these stereotypes is almost crucial due to the topic of mental health, as they need to tread carefully because of the sensitivity of it, and so portraying stereotypical responses to poor or good mental health can be positive as it denotes how real people feel and how real people experience these situations. This creates verisimilitude for the audience, which is vital for a positive public reception on the campaign, as well as in order to feel like what you’re campaigning for is actually

a beneficial and vital thing – not portraying things using harmful stereotypes as this may actually deter people away from the product, which is the opposite of what the NHS are trying to do. They’re effectively relying on good public relations, as that means they can continue to use and better this particular campaign, so it can help as many people as possible – this is proven due to the fact that this movement is still ongoing meaning it must be helpful and audiences must enjoy using it. Additionally, their employment of different demographics in the varied media products of this campaign, is important because they need to target this campaign to everyone. For example, in the home page of the “Every Mind Matters” web page, there’s a male POC alongside a white man implying that mental health is universal and shouldn't be ignored. Also, in this particular medium long shot, the use of mise-en-scene (their positive and happy body language and facial expressions) further suggests that everyone can also have a good ending, and can benefit from this particular product. Despite one of the men wearing a blue shirt which usually connotes sadness, it denotes his journey from sadness to happiness, which may be quite moving for a lot of people in similar situations. 

 

The campaign's logistics 

NHS’ programmes are mostly done via emails which is an easy way for people to access the campaign, as most of the general public have at least one email address and some form of a technological device in order for them to access them. This links with their target audience as most adults, despite being digital immigrants, know how to use emails and how they work, due to us living in a rapidly evolving technological world / society. Despite this campaign being produced during covid to battle with the repercussions and consequences of the pandemic, it is still in use today. People can access all aspects of the campaign and still get the help they may need, even if they aren’t in a global lockdown. This ensures the public’s hope and respect for the concept of the NHS as they’re still actively trying to help people, even if the world may have moved on from this particular, yet crucial and significantly important, topic.  

 

Legal and ethical issues 

There’s a lot of ethical issues that the NHS had to consider for this campaign due to it being a highly sensitive and serious topic, that, if not handled with the utmost respect and caution, could completely fail and instead do the opposite of help people and instead push them towards the edge, and worsen their mental health. However, they depicted mental health problems very seriously and took them seriously too - not denoting them to be abnormal, or an unusual thing in order for the audience to not feel alienated by the campaign, and to feel like they’re completely alone in the journey to better themselves mentally, and as well as feeling like a burden.  

 

How each media enforces the key messages of the campaign 

In terms of the website, this enforced the key messages of the campaign as it denoted numerous ways for audiences to try and better understand their conditions and why they’re feeling the way they are, as well as showing them that they’re not alone in the way they feel, and therefore shouldn’t feel as such. Listing many helpful articles, links, and tips in order for the NHS to do all they can to aid people in dire times when people who suffer from poor mental health need someone most. Their website is also very colourful which in general connote happiness and positive feelings and vibes, which would have a positive impact on people who are feeling the opposite, as well as the typography being very contemporary and simple so as to not overwhelm people, This is due to serif sometimes being too serious which may make

people feel anxious and unwelcomed, so their act of using sans serif font ensures that people feel more comfortable, calm and relaxed, thanks to the mostly unserious and casual connotations that sans serif fonts bring alongside them. Also, the employment of the links on the website that are there to help people is very useful as it means they can find everything in once place – which is what was intended by NHS, with them labelling this particular website a “digital hub”, and an “Evidence based tool” ensuring audiences that they know what they’re talking about. This is also thanks to the fact that the NHS released this, a well-known, commendable, and reliable service that is the head of public healthcare in the UK – meaning many people would be very familiar with them and the services they provide to everyone, nationally. Furthermore, their posters, billboards and promotional videos help assure the public that they’re not alone in their journey; enforcing the key messages of the campaign as they’re helping people tirelessly in order to better their mental health. This is vital as it means that people will see these materials everywhere, ubiquitously, whether that be on public transport, in newspapers etc.

they won't be difficult to find, and therefore as many people as possible will be able to get help. This further enforces the campaign as due to the NHS’ responsibility of providing services and trying to help the nation as a whole, they’re reaching as many people as possible in this campaign – meaning they're fulfilling their promise to the nation, as well fulfilling their promise in their campaign. Additionally, in their short film promoting this campaign, they include numerous different celebrities. This helps validate their campaign, thus enforcing the campaigns messages. Some examples of celebrities that backed this campaign and were used as celebrity endorsements are: Arlo Parks, Stephen Fry, Glenn Close etc. They even had the royal family talk about this campaign in a press conference which emphasises how serious this topic is.

Call to Action

This campaign uses their call to actions similarly to the previous Dove campaign, where they are instead very thought provoking and meant to raise awareness about the dangers of untreated mental health. The title and call to action of their campaign being "Every Mind Matters" is an example of this. Ethically, the call to action of this campaign is very all encompassing, as it celebrates everybody regardless of demographic - representing the multicultural society and climate of the UK. It makes the entire audience feel seen, and cared for, instead of only saying that a portion of minds matter.

Regulatory bodies

This NHS "Every Mind Matters" campaign complies with regulation standards set out by the regulatory bodies in order to have their campaign still in circulation to attract and appeal to an audience. There's no nudity, sexual content, profanity, or derogatory language in this campaign that would cause it to breach ASA and OFCOM's regulation guidelines.

NHS' "Every Mind Matters" Campaign

NHS's branding was employed across the entire campaign to make the campaign consistent and memorable, enhancing the message that "every mind matters". They created a new logo for this new division of the NHS "Better Health" to denote the importance and significance of this, to help the new division's campaign be consistent. The campaign utilized the colour yellow across all the media as yellow has connotations of happiness, and their message is to better the health of the general public. Yellow is denoted in the posters of the people walking (their clothes), and on the website's header for example. The slogan "every mind matters" was used across all the media too which not only creates a sense of consistency, but also reinforces the key message, values, and mission of this division of the NHS.