It’s said that some of the most lasting emotional scars are sustained on life’s little battlegrounds–the schoolyard, the neighborhood park, the public swimming pool, the school bus, the student cafeteria.
To help take the battle out of those grounds–and specifically to help combat, if not avert, the childhood trauma of being bullied–ad agency Mullen in Pittsburgh has teamed with director Noble Jones of Alturas Films, Venice, Calif., on a PSA for Highmark Healthy High Five, a Highmark Foundation initiative designed to promote the health and well being of children in Pennsylvania. Highmark is a health insurer that was formed in 1996 through the consolidation of two Pennsylvania licensees of Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
The spot, titled “Punching Bag,” opens on a fenced-in schoolyard that appears almost prison-like as the camera peers out through the metal fence at a parked school bus on the street. Next we’re taken inside the school cafeteria where we see an inflated punching bag on which is pictured a young girl who’s standing. The human form and face of the girl are on the bag–almost trapped within it. Indeed the bag is a far cry from the cartoonish caricature normally seen on this kind of inflatable toy. The bag moves to and fro between two cafeteria tables, one of which has spilled food, as if someone had deliberately knocked over a kid’s lunch tray. All the while the cafeteria is illuminated by a flickering overhead light.
A voiceover relates, “When a child is picked on, hit, called names or ignored…”
The scene shifts to a boy punching bag in a school hallway with rows of lockers on either side of him. His eyes blink as a sign that there is life within his inflatable enclosure. Next we see another girl punching bag standing next to a computer monitor in a school computer lab as the voiceover continues, “When someone texts nasty rumors about them, that’s bullying and bouncing back can take a lifetime.”
Visuals accompanying the voiceover include a young lad who’s a punching bag standing in a desolate gym, a girl punching bag on a school bus, another boy punching bag in a bathroom stall.
Finally we settle on yet another boy punching bag standing in a school corridor as the voiceover suggests a path to a solution. “So tell children to talk to a parent or teacher,” and to visit www.highmarkhealthyhigh5.org. At that point five human hands enter the picture and hold the punching bag still, stopping its swaying back and forth. Magically, the inflatable bag becomes a child who’s freed to assume and move about as a flesh-and-blood human being. “Together we can help bullies from getting the upper hand,” concludes the voiceover.
Pressing issue Bullying has been identified by Highmark as being one of the most pressing issues facing kids, schools and communities. Nearly 160,000 children miss school each year out of the fear of being bullied. Highmark wanted a spot to raise awareness of bullying as a serious public health issue. Bullying is particularly traumatic in that it can have a lasting negative impact on its victims, extending into adulthood.
Highmark Healthy High Five has targeted five areas that need to be addressed in order to promote children’s health: Bullying, self-esteem, nutrition, physical activity and grieving. The Highmark Foundation awards grants to non-profit organizations that can make a positive difference in any of these five areas.
The Highmark Foundation’s funding amounts to some $100 million over a five-year period. The long-term goal of the Highmark Healthy High Five initiative is to promote lifelong healthy behaviors in children and adolescents (ages six to 18).
Universal memory The concept for “Punching Bag” drew director Jones into the project. “The idea was to tap into a universal memory of the viewer with the punching bag and the horrors of grade school,” said Jones. “It required the precise look and feel of the faces, the bags and the location to get it to have the required impact without being too off putting.”
Editor Adrienne Gits of rival editorial, Santa Monica, related, “From text messaging and IMing to verbal teasing and physical attacks, bullying comes in many forms and can have lifelong effects. What makes this PSA so effective is that anyone can relate to it and identify–to varying degrees–with the victims. I had an exceptional experience working with Noble and the agency to bring a shared vision to life.”
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