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Harris Academy Merton’s Year 12 A Level Media Studies class entered a national competition run by Dentsu Aegis and My Kinda Future which asked young people to create a multi-platform advertising campaign which raises awareness for the UN’s sustainable development goals.

One of the groups from Harris Academy Merton chose the goal of good health and well-being with a particular focus on mental health.

The students decided that they wanted the aim of their campaign to address the stigma regarding mental health and encourage young people, especially males who often struggle to speak out and ask for support, to share how they are feeling with others and contact mental health organisations or their GP if necessary.

They created the hashtag #ImNotOkay to help spread awareness via social media and allow young people to see just how many people suffer with mental health issues at some point in their life and see the level of support out there for them.

The competition was entered by 60 schools and our students presented their advertising campaign pitch at Channel 4 along with the other 12 shortlisted entries.

The students were extremely well received and the staff from Channel 4, Dentsu Aegis and My Kinda Future all informed me that they were extremely impressed with our students’ professionalism, enthusiasm and the quality of the mock up print advert that they had created in their Media Studies lesson.

The Harris Academy Merton students won the competition and were presented with feedback from the panel of judges who said that their mock-up was of industry standard and extremely impressive at this stage in their academic careers.

The students were awarded with a trophy and received Amazon products, work experience placements and a group trip to an escape room. In addition, they have been invited back to work with Dentsu Aegis and the marketing team to create their advertising campaign to be released nationally on various media platforms late next year.