Research on smiling

1. Smile Campaign Brief.
Client
Who is the client? – The client for this work is the company “Mind.”
What is the name of the campaign? – The name of this campaign is The Smile
Campaign.
What is the purpose of the company? - Mind is a charity which focuses on mental
health in England and Wales. It was founded in the late 1940’s as the National
Association for Mental Health. The charity offers information and advice to people
suffering with mental health issues and “lobbies government and local authorities” on
behalf of those who do suffer with these issues. Their motto is “For better mental
health”.
What do they want from you? – Mind have asked us to produce a creative
outcome that will encourage those who view it to smile as it has been said that
smiling can reduce stress. Seeing someone else smile or someone else seeing you
smile could also boost your mood as we usually smile back when we see someone
smile, causing a ripple effect of sorts. We have been asked to make a
podcast/advert for mind however if we have finished this we could then go on to
create a print advert as well. They have asked us to have these pieces of media
finished by February 14th 2022.
What issues do you have to consider in regards to your client? – Issues that we
may have to consider in regard to my client are that my work is going to represent
mind as a company so I will need to make sure that I am portraying Mind’s views and
values through my work.
Target Audience
Who is the target audience? Include demographics and social grade, possibly
psychographics – The target audience that we have been given is supposed to be
“our own community” and out aim is to motivate members of our community to smile,
reduce their stress and improve their mental health. Personally, in my own work I will
make it so that my work is aimed to those within the age range of around 12–18-year
old’s, as I feel I will work well if I focus on making a piece of work for mind if I make
something that would appeal to my own age range seeing as mental health is a large
issue around me. I feel this age range is a good target audience seeing as this age
range includes everyone from teenagers who are starting secondary school all the
way up to those who will be finishing their second year of college who could possibly
be moving on to university. Focusing on improving the mental health of students is
an important issue to me as it is a large issue in schools all over the country due to
the stress school puts on its students.
How do you know who the target audience is? Use the brief and your research
to support your opinion. – I know this is my target audience as the brief says to
create a piece of media for my own community however, due to this very broad
audience we were given I just decided to take this to the next level and I decided to
focus on helping mental health for school kids seeing as I have experienced how
severe this issue is within schools with my own eyes.

2. Are there any issues you have to consider for your target audience? - Seeing
as the target audience we have been given is so broad, we need to think about a
campaign that could appeal to a broad audience of people who suffer from mental
health issues. We need to think about what appeals to the majority of people instead
of a specific group of people first, then once we have finished that then we could
think of creating more specifically target products for the smile campaign. For
example, each age group will have something as small as a colour scheme that
would appeal to them but not others, which is something we must consider.
Research
What data or articles can you find about mental health and stress in the UK,
and where possible in Sunderland? -
https://www.sunderlandecho.com/health/one-in-seven-have-depression-in-
sunderland-3230519 - I found this article that was released in May of 2021 by the
Sunderland Echo which states that “around one in seven people in Sunderland suffer
from depression” according to new figures. I decided to look at this article as it
touches on issues relating to my target audience as it focuses on the mental health
of those in my community. According to the mental health charity “Mind”, England is
facing a mental health pandemic and they have called out the government, saying
that they need to have a stronger approach to tackling widening inequalities in care.
Research shows that around 13.5%v of adult GP patients in the city of Sunderland
have had a diagnosis of depression in 2019-2020 which in 2% higher than the
national average. In the Red House and Marley Pots areas alone it has been found
out that 17.3% of people were depressed. At the other end of the city, around the
Sunderland central and Deptford area it has also been found out that 10.8% of
patients were depressed. This issue may be getting larger due to the act that the
community in Sunderland had been disproportionately affected by the pandemic,
which didn’t help the already underfunded social care system in the north east, Th
government have been pointed at, saying that strategic action is needed to ensure
the education system supports young people’s mental wellbeing, as if the issue is
not faced at a school level then it leads to the consistently increasing number of
adults with mental health issues in the north east area.
https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2020/research/mental-health-
children/ - I have found this article as well as the one above that I had read, as this
one directly addresses the issues that my own personal target audience are facing.
The article above focuses on how the number of students in the north east of
England who suffer with mental health problems had been increasing dramatically,
even going on to saying that one in seven secondary schools suffer with a significant
mental health problem in the North east of England. The article mentions how girls in
their last year of secondary school are particularly included as suffer with issues
such as anxiety or low moods. A researcher did a large questionnaire (over 6,300
students from 21 different schools in the North east) and this helped us realise how
large of an issue this is, as it said that at least 15% of 12–16-year-olds in secondary
school were suffering with high levels of mental health difficulties which Is a large
increase from 1999 when it was found that only 11% of students were suffering with
any kind of mental health issues, never mind high levels of mental health. Of the girls
who took part in the current study, 21% reported experiencing emotional difficulties,

3. compared with only 6% of boys. 10% of year 11 pupils described themselves as
feeling “very worried, sad or unhappy”. This may be because of the pressure that
students these days are put under, as there is a large amount of pressure to
academically succeed given to students from their teachers and parents, as well as
other issues such as the social pressure teenagers are put under in the current
social climate. According to the questionnaire, at least one out of four students had
reported to have used at least one school based mental health service. This issue
isn’t just within school though as mental health also is a large contributor to the
mental health issues teenagers face these days. It has been said that around 46% of
school children feel that social media has a positive effect on their mood however
6% of school children have stated the opposite, saying that social media has a
negative effect on them. High social media use links to issues such as self-esteem
issues, lack of or poor sleep and online harassment which is a large issue within the
younger community within the 21st century.
Any articles you can find about reducing stress and explain what you have
learned. - https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/stress.html - This is an article which
focuses on the issue that is the stress that teenagers these days feel and it gives an
explanation as to why we feel this and the ways to deal with the stress that we end
up feeling from things as small as everyday problems. I feel this article tackles the
issue of stress well as it makes such a large issue seem less daunting when they
remind the reader that everyone from children to adults feel stress, and that even
though the issues seems so severe in the moment, there are ways to avoid getting
too stressed out (by handling everyday pressures and problems by staying calm and
asking for help when you need it. They also mention that it is important to make time
to relax.) The article seems to have been made to educate the reader on stress, and
why we respond the way we do to it, mentioning things such as out fight or flight
response. Instead of undermining the issue they sympathetically remind us that the
issue doesn’t need to be severe or physical to cause stress and could instead be
small things, which is smart as there have been many times where stressing out over
smaller issues has been ridiculed. They also mention how just letting the stress you
feel sit and grow over time can lead to long lasting issue, also possibly leading to
mental health issues, which is why it is so important to find ways to de-stress and
find time to relax. Their ideas for how to help keep stress under control are fairly
generalised however they are all things that we can all do, and despite being simple
they’re all things they can help us, such as making sure you don’t overschedule or
get a good night sleep. They also remind the reader that it is vital to make time to
have fun, and that we must treat our body well if we want our mind to also be well,
because when facing stressful situations, you need more good nutrition than ever.
What have you learned from this research? How does it help you with your
ideas for your production? – This research helped me as I now understand more
about stress and why it is so important that we face the issue when it is small instead
of ignoring it and letting it snowball into a large problem that can overwhelm us and
effect not only how we do things but how we think and process things. I feel this
helps me when it comes to the ideas for my production as I could include how severe
stress can be when left untreated on something like a print advert or a television
advertisement. I feel that addressing the issue and giving either figures or examples

4. is effective as it gives the audience something to relate themselves to. I will most
likely use the research above in my work as it relates to the issues that my target
audience most likely faces.
What data or articles can you find about the impact smiling can have on an
individual? https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2019/06/the-real-health-benefits-of-
smiling-and-
laughing/#:~:text=One%20study%20even%20suggests%20that,your%20mood%20a
nd%20happiness%20level. I found this article from SCL Health that touches on the
body and mind, and how there are health benefits to smiling. The article mentions
how smiling has “real life benefits” as when you smile, you end up feeling better,
especially after a long and stressful day. The article mentions the scientific
explanation as to why smiling benefits us, saying that when we smile, our brain
releases small molecules called neuropeptides that help us fight off stress. As well
as this, they mention the other neurotransmitters that come into play such as
endorphins ‘(endorphins act as a mild pain reliever in the body.), dopamine and
serotonin (serotonin acts as an antidepressant.) One study
(https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/smiling-facilitates-stress-
recovery.html) mentions/suggests that smiling can help reduce our heart rate and
regulate our emotions when we face stress. Smiling is that effective that faking a
smile can also boost your mood if you’re in a bad mood. Smiling not only helps you,
but those around you as well. Smiling can have a ripple effect as seeing someone
else smile has been said to make us smile as well as a reflex, making us feel better.
What have you learned from this research? How does it help you with your
ideas for your production? – From this I learned that smiling helps people recover
from stress and reduce our heart rate to the point where faking a smile can help
people mood improve. Forcing a smile can also boost your mood and happiness
level. Seeing someone else smile or someone else seeing you smile could also
boost your mood as we usually smile back when we see someone smile, causing a
ripple effect of sorts. I could potentially use someone smiling in my work so that it
makes the viewer feel happier.
Who suffers the most with stress? - https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/uks-
most-stressed-cities/61254/