The Samaritans of Singapore (SOS), is an organisation which aims to provide 24-hour confidential emotional support to people in crisis, thinking of suicide or affected by suicide.

The insight of the campaign is based on the fact that many people hide behind their pain and depression. But although pain isn’t always obvious, the signs are there if you read them.

To show how we often miss the warning signs, we created ambigrams and printed the ads with the logo and tagline upside down in magazines. At first glance, the reader sees a positive phrase. But when the ad is inverted, the copy reveals a sentiment quite the opposite – revealing the hidden feelings of those who are lost and depressed.

The campaign images have gone viral across the internet and have been reposted on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr 150,000+ times by people across the world regardless of nationalities. Social networking sites have became a place for people to voice their hidden pain and depression. And netizens and blog sites have posted helplines and other channels where people can reach out for help.

What started as a local campaign in Singapore, has now raised the awareness on suicide prevention globally.

Interestingly, it has also gotten some attention in New York when people started calling a luxury hotel on the Upper East Side after seeing our ads online. Because the toll free numbers happen to be the same, many people called Lowell Hotel for help. Fortunately through this incident, we also created the opportunity for foreign media to publish suicide helplines in their countries accordingly.