In an inquiry to solve the world’s most pressing issues, it is customary to put the plague of mental illness across our society near the top of the list. To think, why are cases of depression and anxiety increasing by the millions each year, with 1 in 5 teens suffering from mental illness? It has become common knowledge that mental health awareness is extremely important, however mental health awareness is also extremely inadequate. Progressing past the age of “Lend a hand!” flyers in the halls of our schools into an evolution of new practices and procedures of advocacy is pertinent. Doing so recognizes that change is bilateral, and well-known backpack company Jansport is setting new practices in place that actually help those with mental illness. Jansport has initiated a new #LightenTheLoad campaign within the past year that shows our mental health advocacy in the past is a good start, but in order for young adults’ mental health to improve and for anxiety/depression to decline we must continue this movement and pave the way for a new generation of mental health awareness.
Throughout the #LightenTheLoad campaign, Jansport hopes to implement ulterior methods that will make the audience root for change and act on the values instituted, ultimately creating a ‘new’ outlook to awareness for mental health. Jansport’s primary method of doing this is by attempting to make an updated commonplace of old ideas. For the past 10 years, it is undoubtedly routine for one to scroll through social media and see posts with statistics about how many people struggle with mental illness and what it is like to have one. However, Jansport is straying away from old practices like dreadful statistics and sharing real people’s stories on their mental health journey on the campaign website. In the company’s #LightenTheLoad campaign videos, real young adults are given the opportunity to share their experiences with mental health, promoting their ‘Mental Wellness Mission’. An impactful quote shared by young advocate Mackenzie helps explain the new outlook on awareness, stating “I’m never going to be 100% perfect, but I am figuring it out,”. In the past, people urged a belief that mental health is important and should be taken seriously. Jansport continues to recognize that this is simply not enough and goes to make a new commonplace of reaching out to others, sharing your experience, and ‘figuring out’ a plan to make it all work out. Thus, they are hoping the affected individuals are “lightening their load”. Consequently, the multitude of these campaign videos of people from different backgrounds and stories is going to show that yes, mental health is common, yet we are still working to create a community of supportive and helpful practices for those struggling. Jansport urges it’s okay to not be perfect all the time, because current mental health awareness tries to paint individual’s episodes/emotions as their ‘unstable’ side. Overall, this campaign is putting a stop to poorly guided mental health awareness and beginning the message “If we’re not sharing it, we’re carrying it.”.
This campaign continues to push forward into future generations of ways to connect individuals to resources that support their mental health. However, the slogan it goes by may seem contradictory in and of itself, potentially causing the general public to question the ethos of Jansport. These discrepancies all culminate from the fact that #LightenTheLoad is a play on words because they are a company that sells backpacks. Jansport builds their credibility for their campaign by emphasizing the fact that unlikely experiences can sometimes benefit those struggling with mental health the most, which was never highlighted in older advocacy. It seems yet another commonplace is discovered at this point that being overworked in school is a main stressor to individuals’ mental health. Knowing this, it seems almost ironic that a backpack company has the right to advocate for mental health, as they are associated with a known stressor. However, this is exactly why Jansport’s #LightenTheLoad campaign is changing the outlook on mental health awareness. The campaign urges individuals to reach out and find support in places they wouldn’t otherwise. This builds their credibility even higher, communicating the message that even the unlikely situations could be the one to save someone’s life—promoting resources such as Do Something, Active Minds, and The Trevor Project. Additionally, this shows to prove that this campaign makes people stop and think, questioning their own logic, and brings people in to support their mission which was never seen before in mental health awareness that focused on primarily reaching out to someone you know.
Jansport’s campaign is also taking the considerations of today’s generation into hand when forming their message to #LightenTheLoad. Whether viewed as a benefit or disadvantage—both have been argued—Generation Z has been raised on social media and technology. Most mental health advocacy is extremely outdated and out of touch with the real world, so Jansport has worked to accommodate mental health awareness into accessible and relatable terms. Research centers have proved the rate of teenage depression has increased by 59% from 2007 to 2017—which happens to be when social media gained traction. Many older individuals who are the minds behind campaigns that advocate to “put the phone down” or “stop cyberbullying to prevent depression” do not realize that will not suffice. It would be amazing to live in a world where technology wasn’t something people depend on, but Jansport recognizes this commonality and is working to incorporate that into their campaign. Specifically, this past May they partnered with a popular podcast known as Teenager Therapy for “four Comfort Calls and POV Sessions each Sunday in May to chat live on the topics of self-esteem, isolation, compassion fatigue and family”. This seems to be much more appealing than the flyers around school hallways telling students to “lend a hand” to someone in need. In a world of online communication, that is simply not how life works in this day in age. Through this podcast however, Jansport continues to build its relatability to the younger generation and work with them to shape the new community of mental health advocates.
In a world of young adults becoming more depressed and anxious than ever before, it’s pertinent to realize these changes, and expel any and all old methods of mental health advocacy. We live in a generation surrounded by technology, telling those struggling with their mental health to turn off their phone and go outside is not going to cut it. This is why Jansport’s #LightenTheLoad campaign is paving the way for combining the lifestyle of our generation into mental health awareness. Through videos, hashtags, and podcasts they are connecting with more teens than ever before on the issues of mental health. It’s now your turn to support this campaign and walk away from this article knowing that being aware is not good enough anymore. We have done enough to normalize mental illness, but normalization can only change so much when change continues. It is going to take anything and everything to push forward the new ideology to be okay with having a bad day, because you can ‘lighten your load’ with many different communities around you.
