Brand campaigns shaping mental health conversations in 2025

The conversation around mental health has long been shrouded in silence. Historically, the struggle with the mind, whether in the individualistic West or the collectivist East, was viewed not as an illness to be treated, but as a personal weakness to be hidden. This traditional stigma persists today, but in the age of high-speed social media, it has mutated into a new, complex problem.

Today, public awareness of mental health issues is at an all-time high, but this has coincided with widespread casualisation of clinical language. Terms like ‘I'm depressed’ are frequently tossed into everyday conversation, often losing their specific clinical weight. The complexities of genuine mental illness are increasingly condensed into viral, shareable content, sometimes simplifying deep struggles.

In between the growing ease of talking about mental health, brands are one of the entities to initiate the conversation around the topic. Their campaigns focus on storytelling, like in Maybelline's Brave Together, actionable self-care (Spotify's Take a Beat), and linking mental well-being to their core products (ASICS's Desk Break).

This year, Zomato’s ‘Let it Out’ short film bypasses product promotion to focus on the internal battles of ordinary people. It emphasises the critical need for conversation and a safe space to share fears and struggles, successfully normalising the act of seeking support and prioritising genuine human connection. Similarly, KPN’s campaign focuses on breaking the silence around mental health struggles, powerfully contrasting scenes of emotional isolation with the life-affirming act of reaching out.

To understand the other side of this conversation, Dr. Carla Raibow, in one of her blog posts, explained that this shift in discourse risks pathologising normal human emotions. It has become common to label ordinary sadness, a natural response to life events like disappointment or loss, as ‘depression.’ Clinical depression, however, is a profound and persistent condition often rendering individuals unable to function.

Similarly, everyday stress or worry is frequently mislabeled as ‘anxiety.’ This casual misuse blurs the critical line between universal, fleeting emotions and severe clinical disorders that cause debilitating impairment. While accurate labels are vital for seeking help, overusing them makes normal sadness feel like a personal failure and inadvertently invalidates the intense struggles of those battling complex mental illnesses.

The trend extends deeply into social media culture. While mental health memes can sometimes provide crucial validation and community, they often make light of profound emotional distress, risking the trivialisation of conditions requiring professional care. Memes can emphasise a ‘laugh it off’ strategy, which may prevent individuals from addressing serious concerns, leaving mental health struggles untreated and potentially leading to desensitisation.

This casual digital dialogue obscures a much deeper, more critical global health crisis. As data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) notes, mental health conditions are a leading cause of disability worldwide.

The data reveals that more than 1 billion people are living with mental health disorders like anxiety and depression, causing immense human and economic tolls. Despite policies improving, greater global action is vital. The global median is only 13 mental health workers per 100,000 people, with extreme shortages in low- and middle-income nations. Encouragingly, over 80% of countries now offer mental health support in emergencies, a significant rise from 2020.

On World Mental Health Day, we look at some brand campaigns that continued the conversation about mental health in 2025. 

Zomato

Fundación Adecco

KPN

Smartphone free childhood US

Anna Chandy

Batyr Australia

Top Up Together

Did you come across any other ad campaigns around mental health in 2025? If yes, then share it with us at content@socialsamosa.com or post it in the comments section below.

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