Missed birthdays

Best Social Purpose Campaign

The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is a suicide prevention charity that seeks to raise awareness of the issue, and the support available to those who may be struggling.

A particular tragedy is the number of young people, aged between 16 and 25, who take their lives each year. Over the past ten years, CALM believes that 6,929 young people have died by suicide.

Creative agency Hope&Glory PR was briefed to develop a national awareness campaign to drive conversations around the issue, and highlight the new CALM C.A.R.E microsite, which offers practical advice to prevent suicide.

The campaign focused on the human cost of suicide, and how each bereaved family is painfully reminded of their loss at key moments that their loved ones will miss.

Missed Birthdays centred on the birthdays that had been missed. On 9 September 2024, an installation of 6,929 foil birthday balloons was unveiled at London’s Westfield shopping centre.

Passers-by would initially have thought they were attending a giant birthday party, but each balloon bore a number representing the age a young person never reached because they had died by suicide, and the family celebrations that did not take place. A soundscape accompanied the installation featuring the words of families who had lost a loved one to suicide.

In a unique twist, ITV’s This Morning broadcast live from the heart of the installation, which remained in place for three days.

More than 300,000 Westfield shoppers saw the installation while it was in situ, but millions more became aware of Missed Birthdays through more than 220 items of media coverage. More than 23,000 social media posts were generated by people who witnessed the installation, which were in turn engaged with more than 260,000 times – reaching an estimated 2.35m people over the three days.

Importantly, 85 per cent of the media coverage carried a key prevention message, such as Start a conversation or Talking helps, while 72 per cent carried a message to download the C.A.R.E kit, with the vast majority including a link to do so.

More than six in ten visits to CALM’s website as a result of the campaign were new users, while the average session time rose 40 per cent which translates into an additional 54 seconds. CALM’s new microsite, C.A.R.E, attracted 29,500 visits while its advice kit was downloaded by 8,000 people.

Six in ten people surveyed after the campaign said they understood the main message to be that the signs of suicide aren’t necessarily obvious, while two in three said they would check in on somebody they were worried about.

The judges described the campaign as 'stunning', adding that its 'ambition and rationale was clearly articulated, and underpinned by powerful creative and mechanics.' Missing Birthdays generated 'great results, delivering tangible impact'.

Agency: Hope&Glory