L’eau de Chris
When Chris Hughes (one of this year’s Love Island stars, for those who managed to stay away) took to social media to announce he would be launching his first ever product with Topman last week it initially generated a lot of mixed reactions.
The product called L’eau de Chris is described by Topman as “mineral water infused with a Chris Hughes tear”. Some followers found the announcement hilarious whereas many took to Twitter to ask whether this was an April Fool or just banter. Naturally the announcement gained a lot of attention, not just from Topman and Hughes’ followers but also from the media declaring that the Love Island star was being “slammed across social media” for his latest bizarre career move. Just to reassure their readers Metro even said: “Just confirm: Yes, this is real life.”
The product was officially launched the following day via a Facebook Live at Topman HQ to reveal the true story behind L’eau de Chris.
The Launch: Mental Health Day
The Facebook live began at 8:15am where the meaning behind the product as well as the full title was revealed: L’eau de Chris? No, Ludacris; turns out the ridiculous product was a publicity stunt to symbolise the ludacris fact that 84% of UK men bottle up their feelings on a daily basis (YouGov). Along with partnering up with Topman, Hughes also became a brand ambassador for the UK mental health charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), an award-winning UK mental health charity dedicated to preventing male suicide. The limited edition bottles were auctioned at the calmzone.net/dontbottleitup and sold for £2 online at Topman (now sold out) with all proceeds going to support the charity. Topman are also donating £2 from every pack of Topman boxers sold from October 10th-31st to CALM.
So, What Didn’t Work?
When the announcement first came out that Chris Hughes was selling bottled water infused with his tears I thought it was hilarious, not to mention I appreciated the slo-mo black and white video, however when I read that there was an official launch the following day I had no interest in learning more about why or how Chris Hughes was shedding a tear into a plastic bottle – the same goes for the media. While the announcement of the product gained lots of media attention, the launch and the meaning behind the product didn’t come close. Was it almost too ridiculous that people lost interest in hearing more?
Additionally, whilst Mental Health Day was a perfect launch date for the product it also meant that it didn’t get as much visibility as it probably would have hoped for. Every celebrity, influencer and blogger took to every social media platform to discuss their experiences of mental health by sharing inspirational quotes and stories. This meant that news stories became the generic: “55 celebrities talking about their depression, anxiety and mental health”.
Or Did Topman have any idea that Mental Health Day would also be the day that A- List Hollywood celebrities would announce that they had been sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein? Absolutely not. Of course this also an extremely important issue but again meant that the media’s focus was elsewhere.
But What Did?
The humour of the campaign as a whole, from the word play on Ludacris to Chris Hughes bottling his tears there’s no denying it provided a good laugh. Whilst humour isn’t on everyone’s mind when they think of mental health, maybe this is exactly the kind of campaign that engages young men and gets them interested and makes them aware of the help that is available.
People also questioned the appropriateness of Chris Hughes as an ambassador for mental health, some thought “little bit leave it” however Hughes bravely discussed his past struggles with anxiety during the Facebook Live. It also helps that he has an astonishing social media following that includes the campaign’s core target market and as the saying goes: go hard or go home.
My Thoughts
Whilst the campaign wasn’t perfect it was definitely a step in the right direction. Suicide is the single biggest killer of men aged under 45 in the UK, with 76% of all suicides in 2014 being men (ONS, NISRA, GRO 2014) but how many people know this? I know I didn’t until I followed the link to CALM’s twitter page, a charity that deals with everything from anxiety to self-harm.
Whilst mental health is affecting families on a smaller scale, until the media, brands and influencers get involved on a national and global scale this is an issue that won’t get the necessary attention that it needs. I applaud Topman for being one of the first leading men’s brands in the UK to try and communicate with young men about mental health and hope that this blazes the trail for a wider discussion.
Roisin Watters is a final year BSc in Communication, Advertising and Marketing student at Ulster University. She can be contacted at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roisin-watters-661a03a6/, and on Twitter @Roisin_Watters