Black Dog Campaign
In 2011, to mark its 25th anniversary, SANE launched the Black Dog Campaign. The campaign aimed to increase awareness and understanding of depression and other mental illness, to introduce new emotional support services, and encourage more people to seek help.
The Black Dog has been used as a metaphor for depression from antiquity to the present day. To bring the campaign to life SANE designed striking Black Dog statues that were placed across London and other major UK cities to raise awareness, reduce stigma and misunderstanding of mental health problems and to encourage more people to seek help.
It was hoped that the physical presence of a Black Dog would help people define their experience of the ‘invisible’ condition, which characterises mental illness, as well as promoting more open discussion, understanding and acceptance. In order to deliver a positive message of support, the black dogs had a ‘collar of hope’ and wore coats designed by celebrities, artists and members of the public.
Read more about this topic: SANE (charity)
Famous quotes containing the words black, dog and/or campaign:
“I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
What hours, O what black hours we have spent
This night!”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“When a rich man’s dog died, everyone commiserated. When a poor man lost his mother, no one noticed.”
—Punjabi proverb, trans. by Gurinder Singh Mann.
“The war on privilege will never end. Its next great campaign will be against the privileges of the underprivileged.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)