The Men's Table Encourages Men to “Go beyond Banter” in New Campaign via The Hallway

The Hallway’s latest work for men’s mental health charity The Men’s Table launches this week. The digital OOH campaign features a suite of “bantery” executions that play on the tendency men have to talk about anything - sport, cars, fishing, holidays, their kids - other than their feelings. In each execution, at first the audience only sees a man's typical banter, but over 10 seconds, words fade away revealing what he's really wanting to say. The campaign call to action encourages the mentally healthier behaviour of going beyond banter - inviting men to attend a local Men’s Table. 

Established as a not for profit in 2019 with the simple premise of getting men together around a table to open up and talk - about what’s really going on for them, The Men’s Table is in an ambitious growth phase. With social isolation, mental health problems and suicide being closely related issues that are affecting a rapidly increasing number of Australian men, The Men's Table provides a trusted peer support group environment for men to connect and engage in help-seeking and help-giving, for mental, emotional, and social wellbeing and community belonging. With The Hallway’s help, the brand has already grown its national footprint by close to 20% in 2023 and has its sights set on having 1,000 “Tables” established Australia-wide - “a Table in every town”.

Says Simon Lee, CCO & Partner of The Hallway: “If you can’t see what you’re doing, you can’t change what you’re doing. So we’re holding a mirror up to the common male behaviour of hiding our emotions in banter, and sharing the good news: that there’s a place to go to have much needed more meaningful conversations.”

Ben Hughes, Co-Founder of The Men’s Table: “It was my own personal experience of having a deep need to talk about more than ‘just footy and shit’ that was the driver to start The Men’s Table. And our continued growth is proof that this is a need that is shared by many men. ‘Go Beyond Banter’ captures the essence of what The Men’s Table is about beautifully. I have no doubt it will resonate with our audience and encourage more men to join us.”