Background Blindspot
Microsoft Advertising
Issue 61 | January 2022
Agency
Performics Mercerbell
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Vaughan Townsend Senior Copywriter Samantha Cable Senior Art Director Kostia Liakhov
Production Team
Production Director Maria Galang UX Lead James Winchester Designer Gene Stapleton
Other Credits
Chief Executive Officer Jason Tonelli Group Customer Partner Virginia Tong Senior Account Director Jodie Allen Senior Account Manager Jessica Silver Head of Analytics Ruby Menezes Analytics Manager Francesca Rostirolla Communications Manager Jill Antonio
Date
October 2021
Background
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (June 2021), one in five Australians reported high levels of psychological distress between June 2020 to June 2021. Plus, over the past 12 months, Lifeline, the suicide prevention service, received a 40% increase in calls to their hotline. Covid has taken a toll on Australia’s mental health. Even though people have remained in contact through an endless stream of video calls, the problems colleagues and friends may have been experiencing were often hidden in plain sight.
Idea
The Background Blindspot was a video call awareness campaign launched to coincide with World Mental Health Day on Sunday October 10th. It explored how easy it is to miss the signs that people we know may be coping badly with working from home.
In partnership with psychologist Sabina Read, nine volunteers took part in a week-long social experiment. From wine bottles to empty pizza boxes on the couch, to dishevelled hair or weary faces, the volunteers adapted their backgrounds and personal presentation to demonstrate a mix of signs that they could be struggling, overwhelmed, or feeling different to their usual selves.
After five days and 180 hours of video calls, not one of the 84 individuals who had engaged with the nine in a video call noticed or reached out.
The idea was extended in social media with influencer Skyler Hart also showing a deteriorating condition.
The story was taken up in news media and attention drawn to backgroundblindspot.
com where Australians could learn how to detect how a person’s internal world could make itself manifest in their external environment. Visitors to the site were invited to download a Microsoft World Mental Health Day digital background to use on their next video call.
Results
The Background Blindspot created global awareness around mental health issues with over half a million domestic impressions across TV and Radio and a further half a million impressions across Web and Social.
One in six website visitors downloaded the virtual background. More than half of visitors spent three minutes or more.
Our Thoughts
Financial insecurity, unemployment, fear of the disease itself plus reduced access to health services and even physical exercise has taken its toll on people around the world. The long-term effects have yet to be understood. Certainly my own experience has been that the second year of the pandemic has been a lot harder to bear as new variants force U-turns on governments trying to return to normal. I urge you to look out for your friends and colleagues.
The website (backgroundblindspot.com) has great advice for what to say and the questions to ask as well as providing help if you’re feeling crap yourself.