Mpower, a mental health service provider and an initiative of the Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET), has launched #UnpackTheBaggage, a public awareness campaign that explores why people often hide emotional distress behind everyday responses such as ‘I am fine’.
Created in collaboration with Schbang, the campaign uses an everyday object as a metaphor for the emotional baggage people carry as they grow up.
The campaign film encourages viewers to look beyond these familiar responses and consider the feelings that often go unexpressed. It draws attention to the difference between appearing fine and actually feeling that way, bringing the conversation around emotional well-being into everyday interactions.
The campaign draws on Mpower’s Unpack Your Emotional Baggage survey of young adults aged 18 to 25 across ten regions of India. According to the findings, 49.5% of respondents said they hide difficult emotions and deal with them alone, while only 9.2% reported having sought professional help.
These findings point to a gap between experiencing emotional distress and seeking support. Through #UnpackTheBaggage, Mpower aims to encourage conversations about mental health and help-seeking, particularly among young people who may find it difficult to acknowledge or share what they are going through.
Adding further Rajeshwari Rao, National Creative Director, Schbang Said “This film is definitely a lot more personal to everyone involved right from its inception to its final execution. Because who amongst us hasn’t been scarred by life?”
“Professionally and creatively, it ticks all the right boxes for us as the creative agency but more importantly, our partnership with The Aditya Birla Education Trust has been all the more gratifying given the subject matter of this campaign. We were stoked from the outset to bring their vision to life,” he added.
Speaking about the campaign, Roshan Wadhwani, Vice President, Marketing, Aditya Birla Education Trust, said, “One of the challenges in mental health communication is finding a way to move beyond messages people have heard before and make them stop and think.”
He further added, “With #UnpackTheBaggage, we wanted to take a familiar part of everyday life and look at it from a different perspective. The idea was to create something that stays with the viewer beyond the film itself and sparks a conversation.”
