Problem Solved: The Activist Reserve

Environmental activists are murdered at unprecedented rates in Latin America, and, as Cheil Chile has discovered, most of these deaths are disguised as suicides. To demonstrate how these activists fight not just for nature, but also for their lives, Cheil Worldwide and Chilean psychology platform Mindy.cl created 'The Activist Reserve'. This is a programme of psychological assessments that proves the stable mental health of activists, thus demonstrating they have no intention to take their own lives. The program utilised the Suicidal Ideation Scale and Mindy.cl’s expert psychologists to evaluate and assess 500 key activists, setting a clinical and legal precedent about their mental health. 

'The Activist Reserve' engaged more than 100,000 Chileans in just 24 hours after its launch in April, and has since generated over $27m in free media to date. In addition, it's influenced key parliamentarians to act, including Chile’s minister of the environment Maisa Rojas, who has contributed to changes in Chile’s 'The Law of Nature', which is now legislating in favour of activists and the environment.

Speaking to LBB, the Cheil Chile team discusses how they created 'The Activist Reserve' and what this means for the plight of environmental activists in the country and beyond.

What You Made

Environmental activists are being murdered at unprecedented rates in Latin America, and most of these deaths are disguised as apparent suicides. So, Cheil Worldwide and Mindy.cl created 'The Activist Reserve', a program that psychologically assesses these activists to prove they are not suicidal, enabling them to fight not only for nature, but also for their lives. The campaign shares the psychological profiles with the public and directly with key government ministers, resulting in 'The Activist Reserve' directly prompting changes in Chile’s 'The Law of Nature', now legislating in favour of protecting activists and the environment. 

The Problem

Mindy.cl, Chile’s leading online psychology platform that provides online therapy and consultation services,  came to Cheil with the ambition to position itself as a brand concerned with the issues that affect people in Chile, related to mental health, psychology and their derivatives. So, the brand rose to the challenge of tackling what is arguably Chile’s most critical societal issue - the false narrative that environmental activists are depressed and are committing suicide. The fact is, they are of sound mind and are fighting to save all humankind by saving the environment.

Latin America is the most dangerous place for environmental activists. In 2022 alone, more than 227 activists were killed. The situation worsens every time one of these deaths is disguised as an apparent suicide.

The most emblematic case of these 'suicides' is that of the Mapuche activist Macarena Valdés, who was found by her youngest son, hanging from the beam of her house. The police, judges and the prosecutor's office twice closed the case as a suicide, but the family went further and hired foreign detectives, who proved that her death was caused by murder. This led to the investigation being reopened and her death eventually being ruled a murder. Now other murders are also being investigated.

This case made us think that something was suspiciously wrong. The press and justice system insisted on the theory of suicide, while the family and close friends of the activists insisted that the mental health of the activists was good; they were happy people, without suicidal tendency... Something was suspiciously wrong and we knew if Mindy.cl could dispel doubts, we would be able to save many lives and activists could continue the crucial fight for the environment.

Ideation

The problem was so obvious that the solution, at first glance, was also obvious. If the murders of activists were being disguised as apparent suicides, Mindy.cl simply had to prove Chile’s environmental activists are of stable mind and have no intention of killing themselves, to prevent any more activists being ‘suicided’ in the future. 

To achieve this, Mindy's team of psychologists worked to create a program of psychological sessions, based on the Suicidal Ideation Scale, in order to clinically and legally demonstrate the mental health status of the activists. Through this 'test' and psychological sessions, we were able to successfully detect whether or not a person intends to take their own life.

This was the most challenging process for the agency team, since it was necessary to simplify a product that is very complex intellectually, so that the public, targeted government ministers and leading activists could all immediately understand and apply it.

Prototype and Design

Once this psychological 'test' was created, we had to try it. For that, we contacted key activists from three environmental organisations in Chile to be the 'guinea pigs' of the experiment: Activists from Ojos de Mar who work for the protection of the Chilean coast, 'Glaciares Chilenos' who protect and educate about the glaciers of the Andes mountain range throughout the country and 'Nativos' activists who protect and preserve the Chilean desert ecosystem. They underwent six psychological sessions, in person and on video calls with Mindy's psychologists. This helped to better understand the life and problems of the activists and also to improve and adjust certain elements of the test. Once the sessions were over, the test was applied to each one and we obtained our first results – they were a resounding success that meant we could launch the campaign for activists across the country.

Live

'The Activist Reserve' has made a significant and widespread impact in Chile, garnering national broadcast media, social media and government attention and even directly impacting the 'Law of Nature' legislation. The campaign prompted the minister of the environment, renowned activists and even the president of the republic himself to refer openly in their speeches about the risks of activism and how now is the time to act to protect activists in a very real way, with legislation.

With Mindy.cl’s psychological profiling at the heart of the campaign, it has positioned Mindy as the leading Chilean brand with concern for the people and with robust, expert - yet accessible - methodologies and services. 

The campaign has resulted in activists from far-away places in the country scheduling sessions with Mindy's psychologists, showing us that the idea had lasting impact, but also that thousands of activists feel that their lives are in danger and somehow have to seek evidence to protect themselves.

One of the issues that impacted us the most as an agency was discovering the true and terrible power that 'the bad guys' have. Many doors were closed to us, many people abandoned the project halfway through, many media outlets did not want to cover the news, simply because of the repercussions and persecutions that they themselves could suffer.

They felt and feel what activists feel every day, the danger of protecting nature. The danger of protecting our own lives.