One of the biggest problems in Australia is suicide, especially among men. It is the number one cause of death among young people in Australia, for men between the ages of 15 to 44 and for women between 15 to 34 years old. Out of all suicide cases, 80% are men. Five out of six suicides in Australia are men. The higher rate of male suicides comes down to stereotypes of masculinity and notions of manliness in Australia. In Australia, men are told to “harden the f*ck up”. As a man they should do things men do, i.e. drinking and get drunk, and never talking about issues or problems. So, Ehon decided to counter that culture and run a campaign called ‘Soften the Fck Up’. It first started as an experiment with a couple of his friends and eventually …show more content…
Back then, there were only 52 volunteers as it was merely a social experiment. Slowly, some of the largest agencies and organisations in the world came and help until they finally evolved into an organization and getting funds to employ three employees and invited hundreds of volunteers who were trained to remain lean, neat, strong and extremely efficient. Spur Projects organises campaigns every once a year. The first campaign was the ‘Soften the Fck Up’ which was about engaging men in Australia in conversations about their feelings and emotions, and it got the most responses, about 40,000 people engaged with them. The second campaign was ‘Better If You’re Around’ to get people to think about their future, showing the things that people would miss if they were no longer around in 10 years’ time. The campaign was also quite successful, about 50,000 people were engaged, where they watched a series of videos where SPUR documented people backwards from 2052 all the way to 2012, to see how people’s lives change from having grandchildren all the way to where they were kids, just to get people to think about what they would miss if they were not around anymore. People need to change their perceptions, getting themselves to think about their future, and instead of being caught up by current dark clouds