Halloween horror brings out the best in online campaigning

Wednesday night brought to the attention of the mental health world an appalling example of stigma. George (Asda’s clothing line), and a range of other retailers were stocking ‘mental patient’ or ‘psycho ward’ Halloween costumes. In the case of Asda the caption read:

“Everyone will be running away from you in fear in this mental patient fancy dress costume. Comprising of a torn blood stained shirt, blood stained plastic meat cleaver and gory facemask it’s a terrifying Halloween option.”

In the case of Tesco, the theme was more reminiscent of a high security prison, with an orange jumpsuit and face mask and ‘complete the look’ suggestions including gory knives and teeth sets.

Clearly both of these approaches are offensive, literally stigma in its purest sense, playing on a stereotyped public impression of mental health which many thought we had moved on from.

When the image and Asda link went viral on social media on Wednesday night there was a general outcry from all sectors, led by individuals with mental health problems. The major charities, such as SAMH and Time to Change partner Rethink also picked it up.

Complaints details for Asda were crowdsourced by those following the story on Twitter, and Asda’s Twitter feed and complaints system was deluged. Within two hours of the link going viral, Asda took the costume off sale, issued a public apology to customers it had upset, and offered a sizeable donation to Mind. This swift action is commendable, and must be recognised and credited.

Of course other retailers should follow suit immediately, and withdraw similarly themed costumes, with apologies. They should also all be agreeing to train their buyers and merchandisers.

There are two lessons for me from this for anti-stigma work going forward.

Firstly, it is far from inspiring that this kind of thing is still happening. Asda have a reputation as good employers of disabled people including those with mental health problems. I have used their staff facilities to hold mental health sessions, and they support numerous community initiatives. Yet this kind of costume was approved for sale by a team, and a manager somewhere.

We need to aim to equip everyone with the basic understanding of mental health to understand that this is wrong. People with mental health problems are far more likely to be victims of violence that perpetrators. Regardless of this, we need to ask ourselves what other marginalised group could, in 2013, be objectified in this way at Halloween. People used to think black people were dangerous and scary, but blessedly it has been generations since any decent person, let alone retailer would believe or promote this idea. As a mental health movement we should aspire to this end. In this case the retailer should have instinctively dismissed this at the planning meeting where somebody suggested a mental health horror costume.

My second point is the point of pride and excitement at the fact that people power led by those with lived experience created an upswell of action that created visible change they could all see and swept the story onto the BBC and ITV news agenda by midnight.

They did not need PR support, or encouragement from mental health charities and anti-stigma campaigns. Most of the charities were not online, though those that were were using their voice well to support the individuals with key messages and pointers.

By midnight, the day was won, and at least within Asda, a corporate mind was changed by citizen action mobilised to address stigma. People could see the change they sought, and I hope it made them proud. Certainly some people were tweeting what they were wearing, as examples of what ‘mental patient costumes’ actually were. I certainly thought that trick or treat for mental health awareness was a good idea.

This was a social media victory but we need to remember that not everyone with mental health problems has access to technology. So we must find ways of sharing the good feeling of achieving a change with them and find ways for them to feel that buzz.

Over the next three years, from November,  the Foundation and the Scottish Association for Mental Health will be taking forward the renewed Scottish anti-stigma programme ‘See me’
into a new phase. The Scottish Government and Comic Relief are investing £4.5m over three years to address the social injustice and multiple inequalities faced by people with mental health problems via the ‘See Me’ anti-stigma programme.

The campaign will shift gear, building on the traction from ten years of anti-stigma work to date. The focus will be on human rights and the mobilisation of a social movement of those with a connection to mental health, to address stigma and discrimination at community level. We want to make sure that the three in four people who don’t directly experience mental health problems understand and stand up for the one in four who do. We need to recognise too that the effect of stigma and discrimination is felt by families, mental health professionals and society as a whole when people can’t fulfil potential, or die through not being able to come forward for help. Discrimination in mental health is a four in four issue.

The lessons from Wednesday night highlight the need for strong anti-stigma programmes to continue. Even more so they show the potential for people to mobilise and create change they can see with only the lightest of touches from campaigning organisations.

The huge task the renewed programme will face means that creating real change will mean rely on ordinary people to amplify the messages the campaign will help them generate, as no central campaign can create enough momentum alone to make the difference in hearts and minds we need to see.

But last night felt like the morning after The Sun published the ‘Bonkers Bruno’ headline. Something feel different. Like stigma has a bloody nose because many ordinary people said ‘not OK’ together.

Recent blogs by Chris O'Sullivan

• Nice work if you can get it - 6 November 2013