Gunning has led the charity for the last five years, joining CALM after stints in media, the music industry, TV and advertising, including working as marketing director at the BBC. He’s seen creative work made from both agency and client-side, but this was his first role at a non-profit organisation.
There’s a running joke, among the staff at suicide prevention charity CALM, that one of the most successful models in the world is the man who sits on the end of the bed, with his head in his hands.
“We mustn’t lose the humour, the anger, the originality, the kind of dance moves that you don’t really see being exhibited by charities,” says the CEO. “We mustn’t lose that, because you can see what the alternative is – you become calcified by the constraints you imposed on yourself, because of the way that things have always been done.”
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CALM – or, to give it the full name, Campaign Against Living Miserably – looks and sounds nothing like any other mental health charity, and that’s on purpose. The organisation has done everything from printing “feeling shit’s shit” on toilet paper for International Men’s Day, to installing park benches across the UK in partnership with Netflix.
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