Bell Let’s Talk Chair Mary Deacon opens up about the “bold new era” — and controversial shift in advocacy

Bell Media will no longer donate five cents to organizations offering mental health programs each time the phrase “Bell Let’s Talk” is used on social media or in texts on a particular day in January. Beginning this year, the company will provide a direct contribution of $10 million towards mental health initiatives with a focus on connecting people with mental health services and highlighting the work of partner organizations.

“This year’s campaign marks a bold new era for Bell Let’s Talk,” said Mary Deacon, chair of Bell Let’s Talk. “We know from research that’s been done that 78 per cent of Canadians believe attitudes about mental illness have changed for the better over the last decade … So it seemed like the right time to put a greater emphasis on action and what people can do to help create positive change, whether it’s as an individual, in a school, a workplace, an organization or wherever.”

Launched under the Bell Let’s Talk umbrella, a new campaign titled Let’s Change This will also aim to personalize mental health through a multimedia campaign featuring organizations across the country. On January 25 2023, all of Bell Canada’s media assets will feature mental health related content.

“We’ve sort of mobilized behind the mental health communities so that all of the ads on social media or TV, everywhere on Bell, are about mental health organizations and the services and supports they provide, which aren’t always really well known across the country,” Deacon said.

Mirko Bibic, president and CEO of Bell Canada and BCE, said the change will “put the focus on community organizations that are helping to drive this change and moving mental health support forward.” 

To date, Bell Let’s Talk has provided funding to 1,400 non-profits. Since launching in 2010, Bell Let’s Talk has resulted in more than a billion messages about mental health being shared. It’s also committed $139 million to Canadian mental health causes.

However, in recent years the campaign has received mixed reactions, particularly on social media platforms. Some have juxtaposed Bell Canada’s commitment to mental health against its corporate culture, mass layoffs, the closure of local radio stations and the firing of a senior female journalist, allegedly for appearing on-air with naturally grey hair.

Bell’s parent company, BCE, also received more than $122 million through The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program in the early years of the pandemic. In 2021, the company’s net profits were north of $2.1 billion.

 

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Joanne McNeish, associate professor of marketing management at Toronto Metropolitan University, said a lot has changed since Bell first launched the campaign in 2010, in terms of technology, consumer trust and corporate social responsibility.

“Bell Let’s Talk was an effective campaign on a difficult topic when it first started,” she said. “However, the communication landscape has changed, as has the public’s and advocates’ sensitivity to inconsistencies between supporting a cause and the way a corporation behaves.”

Although she also cautioned that social media isn’t necessarily a reliable barometer of public opinion, McNeish said people are generally less trusting of corporations today than they were a decade ago.

“I think that there were some people that maybe felt it was a bit awkward that the donations would flow based on people using the company’s name,” said Christie Stephenson, executive director of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. “And so this move to a direct giving model, I think, will be well received.”

Deacon said there’s no link between changes to the Bell Let’s Talk campaign and public criticism. The move away from the five cent per mention model is the result of a strategic plan developed in 2020, she said.

“We always knew that the time would come when we needed to work with our partners and move into an even greater action phase,” said Deacon. “We did this in concert with all of our partners and mental health leaders.”

The shift towards direct giving does fit with larger trends in corporate social responsibility, Stephenson said. Companies are pivoting towards environmental, social and governance strategies, better known by the acronym ESG, which means thinking more broadly about responsibility in the context of larger issues, such as climate change or reconciliation, for example.

McNeish said criticism of corporate social responsibility sometimes comes from the public’s ambivalence about what role corporations should play in society, but she encourages companies not to give up on campaigns in the face of detractors. “I always ask myself the question, what happens if we criticize people so much that they stop doing this?”

Deacon emphasized the continued need for focus on mental health.

“But bold action is needed more than ever. Too many Canadians are still struggling with mental health and addiction issues and not getting the care they need,” Deacon said. “There were a lot of things that we explored … but we settled on this one because we thought it really put a clear emphasis on both the crisis we’re facing and the services available in the community to help create positive change.”