It was World Mental Health Day yesterday and plenty of brands launched campaigns designed to show the world that they care about mental health. Such campaigns can feel forced, though some, like Maybelline’s effort felt quite refreshing and parkrun is another company that got it right.
The campaign, which, like many of the best adverts, has a simple idea at its heart, was created by Meanwhile. It consists of what look like prescriptions, with ‘parkrun’, ‘weekly’, written on them in scrawly handwriting. The prescriptions highlight the very real practice of ‘social prescribing’, where doctors prescribe activities to their patients –parkrun is part of a Royal College of General Practitioners to recommend its friendly 5km runs to patients. GPs who have prescribed Parkrun have said it helped patients with anxiety, depression and other serious conditions.