Social Media for Wellness
Many people struggle with juggling their personal, work, social, and home life daily. It can become extremely difficult to manage your time with so many responsibilities and this can affect a persons mental health. The pandemic made these affects more as we were stuck at home, and had to find a way to maintain friendships, find a way to work from home, and make time for themselves which is something most people were not used too.
Many brands stepped up to the plate and launched campaigns to show their customers they cared and could be a resource for them. JanSport was a specific campaign I thought did a great job of showing their customers they were there for them and understood what they were going through.
JanSport launched a campaign called “#LightenTheLoad” which provided insights that showed that 7 of 10 young people said that mental health issues were weighing them down and 3 out of 10 people said they felt anxious everyday. The goal of this campaign was to be a resource for Gen Z and allow them to open up about how the issues they struggled with so other people would not feel that they were alone.
They asked members of Gen Z to create a short film talking about their feelings and how what they struggle with in order to create a short film. This shed light that no one is alone and many people around us are struggling with similar issues and it gave these people a platform to share their voices and be there for one another. The website link to this campaign has many tabs where users can find different resource options catered to the issues they are dealing with. Such as The National Suicide Hotline, Mental Health Support at College, Mental Health Support for all identities and more. This is an ongoing mission for JanSport as they believe in strength through sharing.
I believe this campaign was successful because it really brought Gen Z together as this target audience can usually be shy or embarrassed to speak up about how they feel and share with one another. This campaign really helped these individuals inspire one another to either speak up or get the help they needed.
Resources:
https://www.jansport.com/discover-jansport/lightentheload.html
