Asics enlists Sigourney Weaver for wildlife-style mental health film Human Nature

Asics has released ‘Human Nature’, a 10-minute comedy documentary narrated by Sigourney Weaver to mark World Mental Health Day.

The film, made with Golin Ketchum, applies the wildlife documentary format to modern humans in their increasingly comfortable surroundings. One of its three ‘specimens’ is Janet, who has been on calls since 9am.

“Her territory, once vast, now extends no further than a two-by-two-meter enclosure she rarely leaves. She is waiting for her moment to unmute, but Greg from finance simply will not stop talking,” says Weaver.

Another character spends all of Sunday under a duvet, binge-watching and eating tortilla chips. A third, a young man whose thumb is set to scroll 4,000km over his phone during his lifetime, makes a hazardous journey across his bedroom to reach a charger.

When the film premiered, the host asked the audience whether they recognised themselves in the specimens. Everyone who answered said all three.

The Movement Conservation Project

The film launches ‘The Movement Conservation Project’. The report behind it surveyed 34,000 people in 31 countries and found that 86% of waking hours are spent inactive. It sorts people into the categories a conservation body might use for a species: active, at risk or endangered.

More than half (53%) are at risk or endangered, and close to a quarter are endangered, managing under 30 minutes of activity each week.

Professor Brendon Stubbs, who led the research, had assumed older people would be least active, but the least active group turned out to be those aged 18 to 24. “They have all the reasons to move,” he said, “but there’s more to be done to support this group.”

David Raichlen, a professor at the University of Southern California and a contributor to the report, said: “We’ve basically engineered movement out of our lives. You can order food to your door, take meetings from your sofa, socialize over a screen.”

A caregiver brand

For Raucher, who spoke for Asics, the cause is the company’s reason for being. Kihachiro Onitsuka founded it in Japan shortly after the second world war, having seen young people suffering from stress and anxiety. “He recognized the power of sport and movement to uplift not only bodies but also minds,” said Raucher. The brand name is formed from the initials of the Latin phrase Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, meaning a sound mind in a sound body.

“Almost all brands in the category are either ruler brands or hero brands,” he said. “Either you celebrate being the best or you tell the story of, ‘you may not be the best yet, but if you work hard enough, one day maybe you can be.’ We are uniquely different in being a caregiver brand. It’s in our name. That isn’t something you can sit in a boardroom and invent.”

Golin Ketchum has been Asics’ agency since 2021, and the brief has hardly changed. “Every year the brief is exactly the same and it’s amazing,” said Raucher. “This is why we exist. That’s what allows us to stay the course and not get distracted.”

Alex Wood, chief creative officer at Golin Ketchum, sees that constraint as what drives the creative work. “Coming back to the same brief forces us to find new, compelling and disruptive ways to make it mean something,” he said.

Because Nike and Adidas spend far more than Asics, the agency works to the principle of “actions, not ads.” “I’m not sure anyone would have had a short film about human nature narrated by Sigourney Weaver on their bingo cards,” said Wood. “We can’t just rely on paid, because we’ll be outgunned.”

Taking on barriers to movement

Increasingly, the work targets whatever prevents people from moving. In Asics’ ‘Desk Break’ campaign, Succession actor Brian Cox warned office workers that their desks were killing them. “Look at you, trading your own mental health for free fruit under Wellness Wednesday,” he said in the ad.

The brand then turned to schools. Women in Sport figures show 64% of UK girls give up sport by the age of 16, with PE kit a major factor. Asics created the Undropped Kit to help girls feel more comfortable and campaigned for broader change. Within three months, the Department for Education had revised its school uniform guidance so that girls should be given a choice of PE kit.

“There are brands that say they stand for things and that’s all very well,” said Wood. “But what’s more interesting is brands that stand against things in the interests of the public. It’s a bit risky. What right do we have to show up in the world of work with Brian Cox? But if the barriers are credible and you’re standing against something for the benefit of all, the work immediately becomes more interesting.”

This year the target is modern life. Much of that inactivity takes place on screens designed to keep people watching, while addictive social feeds come under increasing legal scrutiny. Raucher did not rule out taking on the technology companies behind them. “It’s not been the focus of this particular campaign,” he said, “but any time there’s a barrier, we want to look for opportunities to be a champion in removing it.”

A modest ask

The campaign’s request is deliberately achievable. According to Asics’ own research, 15 minutes and nine seconds of movement is enough to lift people’s mood.

Asics works with charities worldwide that recognise the link between movement and mental health. Its partner in England and Wales is Mind, whose head of physical activity, Hayley Jarvis, spoke on the launch panel and has collaborated with the brand on several campaigns. “Movement can help all of us to stay well, so it has that preventive role,” she said. “And for people who are struggling with their mental health, it can be used alongside treatment.”

Orlagh McCardle, who manages the partnership as Mind’s senior partnerships account officer, said that brands such as Asics help the charity go beyond funding services. “They help us bring down the stigma around mental health and create a legacy of change.”

There is also a commercial angle: people who become active need kit, and Asics sells the shoes. Raucher says the results follow from the purpose rather than the other way round. “Some people think repetition is limiting, but it opens up a huge opportunity to be creative,” he said. “You see a direct correlation between the consistency in our marketing and our business results.”

Wood describes the approach as “an expected, consistent message with an always unexpected action. One minute we’re in the world of work, next it’s the world of nature, then we’re in school.”

Asked whether Asics is a purpose-led brand, Raucher said: “Yes, it definitely is.”

The film was directed by Rob Leggatt through Knucklehead. At Golin Ketchum, Elliot Riordan was creative director and Phillip Laskaris was copywriter. Edit was by Final Cut and post-production by Creative Outpost.