For the Looking Glass Foundation, which assists adolescents with eating disorders, DDB, Canada launched a PG-rated but poignant awareness campaign in British Columbia.
The “Pencil Marks” PSA features a girl charting her waist-slimming progress with pencil marks on a wall. The agency also distributed broken toothbrushes in baggies that read, “Attempting to purge, Jane B. broke a toothbrush off in her throat and choked.”
See, if you’re gonna be all pro-Mia, you need to get over your squeamies and use a finger.*
“Not every suicide note looks like a suicide note,” the ad preaches — an interesting message, given that anorexics get plenty of help with systematic starvation. The ‘net hosts a number of pro-Ana support groups, and the members don’t generally seem very unstable. They become casual experts in gaging calorie content and formulating fat-burning tricks and mental discipline games.
The campaign probably won’t cause a stir of Toscani caliber, but it’s already won the Foundation $1 million in gifted media placement from the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters.
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* I’m kidding.
