BBH London highlights mental health in the Middle East with billboard campaign

This Human Rights Day, the Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights is launching #FAOCEO to support mental health in the Middle East.

The LA-based billboard campaign, created by BBH London, urges the world’s top CEOs and the leadership of companies that offer health services and support to invest in the mental well-being of survivors of terrorism, domestic violence, war, and genocide living in Kurdistan-Iraq, Iraq, and Syria.

It uses an interactive mobile billboard with QR codes that sends direct messages to specific top executives, including Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Elon Musk (Tesla), Bill Gates, Cece Morken (Headspace), Brian Ternan (Health Net), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), and Sundar Pichai (Alphabet).

The 12-foot three-panel digital mobile billboard will feature unique QR codes for each CEO that once scanned will send viewers to a webpage containing Jiyan Foundation’s message to each of them. Once on the webpage, viewers will be prompted to share the message on their social media channel with the hashtag # FAOCEO.

Oliver Short and Jennifer Ashton, creatives at BBH London, said: “The issues Jiyan Foundation face are real. They’re having to close down treatment centers, which means those who desperately need help don’t get it. We needed to do something immediately.

"Rather than letting an email get lost in an inbox, we wanted to go direct to the world’s top CEOs. With a public letter that asks for their help. Our roaming billboard acts like a Trojan horse, hijacking corporate-speak, and these CEOs' names, to get their attention (or that of their employees). If it sparks a conversation, that leads to a partnership, then Jiyan can keep doing their life-saving work.”

Joshua Governale, head of public affairs at Jiyan Foundation, added: “There are millions of people living in Kurdistan-Iraq, Iraq, and Syria who are in desperate need of mental and health care support, and the need keeps growing.

"The conflicts in the region that have been inflicted on them by civil war, terrorism, and outside powers has not only destabilized their communities but also their mental wellbeing leaving many of them at risk of radicalization. The international community, including corporates who are at the forefront of social justices, should commit to providing long-term resources for them."