ASICS Mental Health Day messaging is sitting pretty

Getting a serious message across in a playful manner is no small task: but ASICS has nailed it in its latest campaign for Mental Health Day, which highlights the dangers of desks.

The well-trodden link between positive mental health and exercise raises few eyebrows nowadays, but ASICS' new advert, with agency Golin, succeeds in finding a fresh approach: championing the virtues of getting up from your desk.

To make the message hit home, ASICS enlisted Succession star Brian Cox, who gets up from his desk while offering stern, but playful words to employees about the dangers of the desk in degrading mental health in the workplace.

What does the research say?

The sportswear brand commissioned research involving 26,000 participants, highlighting the crucial importance of movement for office workers, showing that long periods of desk work can severely impact mental health.

The study, State of Mind, discovered a clear link between sedentary behaviour and mental well-being, noting that "State of Mind scores decrease the longer individuals remain inactive."

The study found that after just two hours of uninterrupted desk work, State of Mind scores begin to decline, and stress levels increase. After four hours, stress levels rise by nearly 20%. Fortunately, a solution is available through the new ‘Desk Break’ experiment.

Dr. Brendon Stubbs from King's College London led a study on the effects of movement on the mental health of office workers. Participants took five-minute movement breaks throughout the day and engaged in 15 minutes of exercise after three to four hours of work.

After only a week of these breaks, State of Mind scores improved by more than 22%, with confidence rising and anxiety and stress levels dropping significantly. Beyond just feeling better, productivity increased by 33%, and focus improved by more than 28%.

ASICS advice

ASICS is now encouraging office workers worldwide to take Desk Breaks to support their mental health. A standing desk can improve mobility, posture, and overall activity, while smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 10 can remind you to take breaks and move.

Meanwhile, ASICS advised that, on your lunch break, you could use Garmin Connect to map out a 25-minute walk or run, or try a quick workout like Hugh Jackman's 7-minute routine. An under-desk treadmill can also be used to keep you moving during meetings or calls.

Our take

ASICS has a strong track record of powerful campaigns for World Mental Health Day. In 2022, they dropped ''Mind Race'', in which they ran experiments with athletes to prove the link between mental and physical health. By choosing a non-athlete to deliver the message, ASICS makes it clear that its message is agnostic of demographics, and aimed squarely at the desk-dwelling public at large.

Cox succeeds in making the delivery stern but wry, playing on the modern ‘WFH’ culture in which we’re all probably guilty of wearing less-than-suitable business attire below the waist.

The messaging hit the right note in our post-Covid world, in which working from home is normalised, and greater efforts are being made to ensure workers are treated more humanely.

Kudos to ASICS and Golin for another winning effort.