Situation: There’s a rising, worldwide recognition that mental health is important (thanks, Pandemic). But, there’s still a misperception that mental health is something you “fix” instead of foster. In reality, the unacknowledged truth is that mental health care is a part of everyone’s life. It’s not a simple binary of healthy or ill, but a continuum (from healthy <> stressed <> struggling <> crisis). So, we set out to use our media company superpowers to transform the mental health narrative in America.

Brief: What’s our initiative that reframes how people see mental health, and ignites a cultural conversation around the idea that we all have mental health to manage?

Objectives:

1. Create a perception-shifting initiative that normalizes the conversation around mental health

2. Establish a best-in-class mental health resource that makes mental health relevant to all

3. Increase first-time action-taking & advocacy (note: “first-timers” = the cultural gatekeepers)

According to an American Psychological Association poll of nearly 1,800 psychologists, 74% saw more patients with anxiety disorders compared with before the pandemic, and 60% said they saw more patients with depressive disorders.

LGBTQ youth have reported devastating mental health concerns with 70% of LGBTQ youth stating that their mental health was "poor" most of the time or always during the pandemic.

Black and Latina girls were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide as Black and Latino boys, and the depression of each was less likely to be treated than white peers. (Children’s Partnership)

America’s alarming Mental Health Crisis has been compounded by the pandemic - so in 2021 MTV Entertainment got to work. We built the largest Mental Health Coalition ever - 1400 Partners - to rewrite the mental health narrative.

Mental Health is Health is a comprehensive consumer and industry focused campaign that tackles stigma, promotes well-being, and removes barriers to help-seeking on multiple fronts:

1. INDUSTRY FOCUSED: Storytelling has the power to shift culture – we convened the first ever Mental Health Storytelling Summit and created the Industry’s first Mental Health Media Guide to improve mental health portrayals on screen.

2. ON-AIR: MTVE has committed to increasing mental health in our storylines and created a PSA campaign and resource site for MentalHealthIsHealth.us - that’s been adopted for all Paramount properties.

3. IRL: Creating Mental Health Action Day - a social-first activation that moved people from awareness to action-taking for mental health.

While the initiative would be built to be relevant to all, our launch strategy was to focus on where we could make the biggest, most immediate impact in culture.

Strategic opportunity: We identified that the cultural gatekeepers of the (antiquated) perception of mental health were in fact young people (ages 15-29) taking action for the first time. These first-timers who are yet to be in a crisis, yet seek treatment for themselves, yet, most likely to go to their peers before seeking outside help. Read: they’re in a susceptible limbo.

Their top 2 barriers to help-seeking:

#1: The fear of judgment

#2: Not knowing where to go for help

So, we needed to build something that would not only reframe mental health, but give them an immediate (and easy!) way to take action. If we could change their perception and get them to take action, the rest would follow.

Cultural Barriers, stigma, misconception and systemic inequality have put BIPOC communities at an even greater risk of mental health challenges. It was important that BIPOC communities see reflections of themselves throughout our mental health content.

Over the course of 3 months, we created dozens of spots for linear and social - some driving brand awareness and to resources on our website, some on mental health actions, but most featured authentic stories from MTV Entertainment Group’s diverse talent roster.

Musicians from every genre and series talent ranging from MTV’s Jersey Shore to VH1’s Black Ink Crew, From TV Land’s Younger to Comedy Central’s - The Daily Show - shared their own mental health stories, and steps they’ve taken to prioritize well being.

Airing on all 9 MTV Entertainment Group linear and Social Channels, our content garnered 5,963 airings on linear, and 14.9M views across our brand and show social accounts.

An independent research study found:

- That among viewers familiar with the Mental Health is Health campaign 85% were impacted by the MHIH Campaign Executions in some way, and 81% took some sort of action after viewing content.

- That among P15-29, with only being out in the world for 1 month - that Mental Health Is Health was the second most recognized Mental Health campaign.

- That perceptions around the importance and relatability of mental health dramatically rose after the launch of the campaign.

Source: Custom Research with MarketCast, April 20 – 30, 2021 (Pre) and June 11– 18, 2021 (Post), n=1800 P15-49.

Traffic to the MentalHealthisHealth.us site - rose by 1900% within three weeks after launch.

On Mental Health Action Day Alone:

- Trended on Twitter

- Garnered 620M views on GIPHY, 195.7M views on TikTok,

- Had 320M Public Engagements

- Received more than 1700+ Press Hits.