The FA Appoints Dark Horses For Mental Health Campaign

The Football Association (FA) and Heads Together have roped in sports marketing agency Dark Horses and Fuse to create their mental health campaign.

The campaign features The Duke of Cambridge and England manager Gareth Southgate along with Kelly Smith, members of Barnet Walking Football Team, and the founders of FC Not Alone, Matt Legg and Ian McKenzie.

Heads Up will be launched at The FA Community Shield in August 2019 and will culminate at The Emirates FA Cup Final in May 2020. The campaign will be visible across all levels of football in England throughout the course of the 2019/20 season, including the men’s and women’s England teams, FA competitions and grassroots.

Stephen Hutchison, Fuse Managing Director, said: “There couldn’t be a better time to launch this campaign with The FA and Heads Together, with the conversation on mental wellbeing being powered by something people feel passionately about – football. We are thrilled to be working on this campaign and think it is a game changer for the discussion around mental health.”

Dark Horses founder Simon Dent commented: “The current narrative around mental health is leading to perceptions that mental health is a black and white issue; it’s something you suffer from you or you don’t. This campaign tries to get people to recognise that mental health is something that we all have and need to maintain, just like our physical health.”