The Last Picture: A Shocking Suicide Prevention Campaign

 

The Last Picture: A Shocking Suicide Prevention Campaign

Since Monday, June 20, an open-air exhibition highlighting 50 portraits of smiling and happy people has been installed on the banks of the Thames in the South Bank district of London. But behind the good humor hides a much less pleasing reality: these are the last shots of people before their suicide.

Entitled “The last photo”, this campaign was created by the adam&eveDDB agency and the British association CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) which helps people in distress and victims' families. Objective? Break down preconceived ideas about suicide and help loved ones detect the very often invisible signs.

In each photo, we observe these people smiling, partying, and having fun surrounded by their families or friends without any sign of distress being perceptible. A poignant initiative that also wishes to warn about figures that send shivers down your spine, in particular the number of suicides which stands at 127 each week in the United Kingdom.

The campaign has also taken on a national scale because the photos were first exhibited without being claimed by any association. It was only 3 days later during the This Morning program, viral across the Channel, that the NGO announced that it was behind the exhibition during the testimony of a young woman, Shirley Ballas, to whom she came to the aid of her brother's suicide.