SEAT Encourages Passers By to Grow a Pair

• • Installation on Euston Road shows a giant pair of ears but has underlying serious message
  • Piece completed in readiness for Mental Health Awareness Week (13-17 May)
  • Encourages people to engage in more conversations with peers to check in
  • Forms part of SEAT’s support of CALM which started at the beginning of 2019 

  A witty new installation supporting CALM – the Campaign Against Living Miserably – has been unveiled to encourage people to listen more to their friends and family. 

  Entitled ‘Grow a Pair’, the installation features a giant pair of ears, twisting a typically negative phrase to inspire a positive in relation to mental health issues. 

  Aiming to reduce the stigma around seeking help for mental health issues, particularly among men, the ‘Grow a Pair’ campaign is part of SEAT UK’s ongoing support of CALM and arrives ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week (May 13-17).

  More than four in five men (86%) say they would help a friend in need, but less than a third admit that they don’t know how to do so*. Only 55% of men who reported feeling very depressed said they would talk to someone about it**, which has spurred the installation by SEAT UK and CALM. 

  Simon Gunning, CEO, CALM, said: “We’re delighted to be continuing our relationship with SEAT through the brilliant Grow a Pair mural. We often see campaigns about opening up and talking to someone if you’re going through a difficult time in your life, so it’s great that this campaign focusses on being the person who’s on the other end of the conversation. Just being there to listen can be a hugely powerful thing that takes real courage, and we wanted to challenge and poke fun at damaging phrases like ‘Grow a Pair’ while underpinning an important message. Everyone has a role to play in reducing the stigma around seeking support – there’s no one correct way to listen to someone who may be struggling, different things work for different people and circumstances, and the storytelling we are exhibiting around this mural shows that.” 

  Richard Harrison, Managing Director, SEAT Cars UK, said: “This installation really gets to the heart of SEAT’s link up with CALM – switching a negative to become a positive – and is yet another example of the SEAT brand defying convention. Mental health issues affect everyone in the UK in one way or another and so we are incredibly proud to be supporting such a worthy cause in a very SEAT way.” 

  The installation will be on Euston Road until the end of May. 

*YouGov, 2018

**CALM’s Masculinity Audit 2015 

About CALM
The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is leading a movement against suicide, the single biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK.

CALM provides a free, anonymous and confidential helpline and webchat that are open every day, 5pm-midnight. Head to www.thecalmzone.net for more information.

About SEAT
SEAT is the only company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets cars in Spain. A member of the Volkswagen Group, the multinational has its headquarters in Martorell (Barcelona), exporting 81% of its vehicles, and is present in over 80 countries through a network of 1,700 dealerships. In 2016, SEAT obtained an operating profit of 143 million euros, the highest in the history of the brand, and achieved worldwide sales of nearly 410,000 vehicles.

SEAT Group employs more than 14,500 professionals at its three production centres – Barcelona, El Prat de Llobregat and Martorell, where it manufactures the highly successful Ibiza, Leon and Arona. Additionally, the company produces the Ateca in the Czech Republic, the Alhambra in Portugal and the Mii in Slovakia. 

The multinational has a Technical Centre, which operates as a knowledge hub that brings together 1,000 engineers who are focussed on developing innovation for Spain’s largest industrial investor in R&D. SEAT already features the latest connectivity technology in its vehicle range and is currently engaged in the company’s global digitalisation process to promote the mobility of the future.