Whilst stood at the bar last night in my local Wetherspoons, I found these beer mats.. I thought they were actually a good idea and decided to rob a couple for research and inspiration for future projects!

One of the briefs I had to analyse and pull apart was to do with a teen drinking campaign and these made me think about subtle ways of communicating a campaign without being too direct.

I think that as males and females we think, act and communicate in completely different ways… Women like to chat quite openly about gossip, feelings, men!.., when we are mad, sad, happy… we just love to chat! ;D Men however are different, I think it is the common perception that men are just expected to get on with it, they don’t broadcast feelings for everyone to know about and they are more or less expected to be a macho, strong.. men! (*insert shruggy shoulders emoji here*) Men are just like us women really… they have shit to deal with on a day to day basis, they have feelings (although that’s debatable from the men I’ve ever dated! HA! *awks) and they worry and stress like any other person… we are all human! so how do we get blokes to talk about their “feels” more?…

I think that these are a really good idea! It is communicating to men in an indirect, subtly way in the form of a beer mat because obviously men go to the pub in groups together. It is trying to encourage guys to talk to each other as mates and air any problems they might have, it also gets them to recognise signs that all might not be good with their mate by the simple response “I’m fine”.

The mats are quite humerous (a quote sprang to mind when I saw the flames one; “You shouldn’t have to set yourself on fire to keep others warm”) The use of fire and ice illustrations are metaphors for problems they might be facing in life. The use of Aliens on the back who communicate the message because sometimes talking about feelings and problems can feel alien to the person and to also emphasise that we are all human, we all think and feel the same way after all.