Book of Broken Silence
Alma Littera
Issue 47 | June 2018
Agency
McCann Vilnius
Creative Team
Creative Director Mantas Velykis Art Director Tadas Kazakevicius Designer Karolis Rukas
Production Team
Production Manager Tomas Griez?e
Other Credits
Strategy Planner Tomas Bartninkas Account Director Egle Paliuliene
Date
April 2018
Background
The World Health Organization recently announced that Lithuania ranks eighth in the world for suicides. The country has no national policy for prevention or support for people with mental problems. Instead, the stigma attached to mental health means that potential suicides have to deal with their problems on their own.
The data indicates that someone who has experienced suicide among family or friends is 65% more likely to take his/her own life.
To prevent the situation turning into an epidemic, the challenge was to inspire people to talk, to listen and even to reach out for professional help.
Idea
Self-help books are highly popular in Lithuania. Since 1 in 100 Lithuanians now know someone who has committed suicide, publishing company Alma Littera saw a need for a book about managing grief.
The Book of Broken Silence was a collection of 18 stories from 18 people who had dealt with suicide.
To make reading the book a tangible experience, a simple fold was used so that every story had to be read by tearing the pages open, thus breaking the silence literally.
The book had no title on its cover. Just a space for the reader to call it his or her own way.
The cover paper was chosen so that it would easily pick up finger prints and marks, physically personalising the book.
Results
In its first week, the first edition of 3,000 Books of Broken Silence sold out. The book is now in its third edition.
For six consecutive weeks, it was the best-selling book in Lithuania, picked up not only by various bookstores but also by the biggest supermarket chain in Lithuania, MAXIMA, and the pharmacy chain EUROVAISTINE. The book was also distributed to local libraries.
The number of visits to psychologists by people seeking help has increased by 43% compared to the same period in 2016.
The charity group Arimiems, which offers counselling to families bereaved by suicide, has profited from The Book of Broken Silence since all the authors have contributed their royalties to it.
Our Thoughts
When I work with junior creatives, the question I always ask is, how can we get the reader/viewer/passer-by actively involved in the idea? And here’s one powerful way to do it. Get readers to rip open the pages of the book to release the stories it contains.
It’s a massively symbolic way of suggesting that anyone suffering from depression should let their own feelings out into the open too. And perhaps their personal stories will have a happy ending too.
The other thing I often say to young creatives is, what would you do to get people to pay good money to look at your ads? McCann in Vilnius seem to have answered this one too.