Charity branded 'insensitive' over 7/7 ad campaign

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The poster used in an advertising campaign to highlight male suicides

A mental health charity has been branded 'tasteless and insensitive' for using shocking images of the July 7 bombings to highlight the issue of male suicide.

Photographs of the aftermath of the Tavistock Square bus blast are a painful reminder of the horror that enveloped London when four suicide bombers detonated their bombs in the morning rushhour.

Now one of those images is to be displayed on billboards in a campaign by mental health charity the Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm).

In a move that will resurrect painful memories, the mangled wreckage of the bus, surrounded by emergency services and helpers, is to feature on billboard hoardings from today.

It states: 'Last year, four suicidal British men got out attention. Unfortunately, 983 others didn't.'

At the bottom of the advertisement are the words 'help stop suicide'.

Last night the survivors and families of victims of the bombings that killed 532 people and injured more than 800 said the campaign was a painful reminder of tragic events.

They said there was world of difference between a suicide bomber intent on mass murder and other suicide victims.

Thirteen people were killed when Hasib Hussain, the youngest of the bombers, detonated his bomb on the packed number 30 bus. Dozens more were injured.

John Falding, 63, whose partner Anat Rosenberg, 39, died in the Tavistock Square blast, said: 'There is a big difference between someone who commits suicide in depression and someone who commits suicide because they have been ideologically brainwashed and you can't connect the two.

'Its upsetting that someone could be so tasteless and not see the difference.

'I've got every sympathy with the charity and the cause, but this is not the way.'

Meanwhile Sean Cassidy, whose son Ciaran, 22, died at King's Cross, said: 'Did they not think about some of us? Some people are still very, very vulnerable and this could be a huge shock. I think it's in very poor taste.

'This wasn't suicide, it was a mass killing. It was well thought out and the prime motive was killing people.'

Meanwhile Jacqui Putnam, 56, who survived the Edgware Road blast, in which six people died, added: 'Calm have given no thought to the hundreds of people - men and women - who are still trying to cope alone with the effects of 7/7, some of whom are also at risk of suicide.

'Calm's aim to help suicidal men is admirable, but using the photographs of the bus bombs makes it very difficult for the survivors and the bereaved, images like this used in this way do not help, I think it's counterproductive.'

She said she wished Calm had consulted with victims before running the campaign.

'Suicide was a by product of the primary aim of the four bombers, which was to kill and maim at random as many people as they could so I can't see how this advertisement is relevant,' she said.

The launch of the campaign has been designed to coincide with today's World Mental Health Day on Tuesday.

The advert was created by international agency Ogilvy & Mather.

Jane Powell, Calm National Development Coordinator said she knew the advertisement was 'controversial'.

She admitted survivors had not been consulted, but said: 'Images from that dreadful day are now so widely used and instantly recognised that they have passed into the national psyche.

'We did not intend to cause offence to anybody, but we did intend to provoke thought.

'There is clearly a difference between men who commit suicide due to the pressures of their own lives and those who took the decision to become suicide bombers. Surely the lives of those young men who didn't kill others deserve as much consideration.'

'The reality is that the lives of over 1000 young men a year are almost passed by without thought or comment.'

 

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