‘Eating disorders start on TikTok’: Ad campaign takes social media to task in the most subversive way

Health justice activists have plastered a series of compelling guerilla-style posters across London to draw attention to the youth mental health crisis.

[Photo: Mad Youth Organise]

I was walking down the street with my partner in London’s Camden neighborhood on Wednesday night when we saw an ad that said, “This app was designed to keep you hooked.” 

A finger could be seen tapping Instagram’s app icon above a claim reading, “45% of teens say they spend too much time on social media.” 

In theory, this was all straightforward messaging, but the ad’s final note in the corner threw us: “From Meta,” logo and all.

We turned to each other in confusion, trying to make sense of it. The ad looked so professionally designed that we wondered, could Meta Platforms, a company that has repeatedly denied responsibility for its users’ mental health, be advertising it? 

No. In short, Instagram and Facebook’s parent company has done nothing of the sort. Instead, the ad is from Just Treatment, a U.K.-based health justice group started in 2017.

The organization’s latest campaign is Mad Youth Organise, a push to improve accessible, quality mental health care for young people.

The “ad” we saw was one of eight that activists have plastered guerrilla-style across London, Just Treatment told Fast Company. 

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