By Deborah Duroshola, Michelle Lam, & Linda Zhang
Content Warning: This case discusses suicide.
Get support from a local crisis centre. There is also Talk Suicide Canada (1-833-456-4566), Kids Help Phone, the Hope for Wellness Help Line, and 1 866 APPELLE (277-3553) (Quebec residents), that all offer 24/7 support.
Description of the Case
In 2020, Juveria Zaheer, a Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) clinician and scientist, led a team to create CAMHs largest suicide prevention campaign. It was titled “Not Suicide, Not Today” and was made up of various TV ads, social media posts and billboards that were displayed around the GTA on World Suicide Prevention Day (Yousif 2020).
The goal of the campaign was to normalize talking about suicide among community members, family members, friends and the workplace so that those who are struggling can access treatment sooner (Yousif 2020). The campaign was created by consulting experts who study suicide and people who have experienced suicide ideation.
“Not Today is something people struggling with mental illness can say aloud to inspire hope as they embark on their journey to recovery,” said Juveria Zaheer, “The more people who join us in saying Not Today, the more we can become an unstoppable, life-saving force.”
Critical Analysis of Ethical Issues Involved
When watching the campaign ad, a key component viewers will take note of is the background music that plays throughout the video. The sound can be described as heartfelt and melancholic. Tone is an ethical concern in advertisements such as this one because of the response it elicits from viewers.
As mentioned in class, it appeals and exploits the audience’s goodwill because it shows a one-sided view of what suicde appears to be from a dominant standpoint. Ziv, Hoftman and Geyer add, “music is often used as an instrument of manipulation and persuasion.”
Baril discusses concepts such as the “injunction to live and to futurity” and explains that suicide is considered irrational from a sanist perspective. It revolves around the dominant viewpoint shared by a larger majority that life must always be protected and one must be “crazy” to choose death over life. Above all, from a sanist perspective, suicidal people are seen as unable to make sound decisions for themselves because their “abnormal” behaviour is a sign that intervention is needed on their behalf. When in reality, suicidal individuals want and deserve spaces where they can explore their thoughts and feelings without shame, guilt or oppression.
In relation to the video produced by CAMH, the ad perpetuates the idea that suicidal individuals suffer from a mental illness that clouds their judgment. The music does a disservice to suicidal individuals because it invalidates their need to make their own choices, and maintains the “injunction to live and to futurity” viewpoint as more vital than their agency.
As such, the use of background music in this video is an ethical issue because the music creates a space where those listening view suicidal individual as victims rather than individuals who should be supported.
Another ethical concern seen in the campaign is the absence of voice. In the video, the audience will notice that the man in the chair is silent while he is surrounded by others whose own voices are given greater focus. Though the messages are meant to be encouraging, when analyzing concepts such as testimonial smothering, it is clear that the absence of the man’s voice is both intentional and harmful.
In class, the testimonial smothering was discussed which Baril details at length in his article. He explains testimonial smothering occurs when marginalized groups voluntarily conceal parts of their lived experiences and messages to appeal to a specific audience.
As mentioned in class, testimonial smothering is evident here because hearing about current suicidal ideations is too threatening to the “injunction to live and to futurity” ideal and is rarely received well. Thus, this voluntary concealment maintains the dominant narrative that suicidal individuals should be guided by “rational” individuals to help them overcome their “irrationality”.
Baril also discusses concepts such as queering and cripping discourses about suicide. Cripping and queering suicidality work to break the boundaries between dualities such as “good” and “bad”, life and death and other binaries. It is an approach needed in the future because it allows for suicidal individuals to reclaim their voice and positively share their messages and needs. Ultimately, only by working with sucidal individuals and their discourses can suicidal-affirmative healthcare be created and administered.
Discussion Questions
- What is the issue with using the “ideal” ex-suicidal image in commercials? Does this stereotype encourage audiences to form any biases or generalizations?
- Whose voices get silenced by commercials like this one? How can future commercials avoid repeating the same mistake?
- What are ways that people can create safer spaces for suicidal individuals to share their discourses and educate others without feeling oppressed or discriminated against?
Bibliography
Baril, Alexandre. “Suicidism: A new theoretical framework to conceptualize suicide from an antioppressive perspective.” Disability Studies Quarterly 40, no. 3 (2020).
CAMHFoundation. “Not Suicide. Not Today.” YouTube. YouTube, September 9, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trG8wdbRTB8.
Dotson, Kristie. “Tracking Epistemic Violence, Tracking Practices of Silencing.” Hypatia 26, no. 2 (2011): 236–57. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01177.x.
Sandahl, C. 2003. “QUEERING the CRIP or CRIPPING the QUEER?: Intersections of Queer and Crip Identities in Solo Autobiographical Performance.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies9 (1-2): 25–56. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-9-1-2-25.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. 2020. “CAMH Launches New Campaign on Suicide Prevention and Awareness.” CAMH. September 10, 2020. https://www.camh.ca/en/camh-news-and-stories/camh-launches-new-campaign-on-suicide-prevention-and-awareness.
Yousif, Nadine. “Camh’s Largest Campaign Yet Tackles the Discomfort of Talking about Suicide.” thestar.com. Toronto Star, September 10, 2020. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/09/10/camhs-largest-campaign-yet-tackles-the-discomfort-of-talking-about-suicide.html.
Ziv, Naomi, Moran Hoftman, and Mor Geyer. 2011. “Music and Moral Judgment: The Effect of Background Music on the Evaluation of Ads Promoting Unethical Behavior.” Psychology of Music 40 (6): 738–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735611406579.