The return of Britain Get Talking sees 3 million people take action

The return of Britain Get Talking sees 3 million people take action and start talking

ITV Social Purpose campaigns result in 4.1 million people taking action to look after their mental and physical health in 2019

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ITV today reveals how three million people have taken action since the return of its landmark mental wellness campaign Britain Get Talking.

The initiative, which launched off the back of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway to 9.5 million viewers, urged the public to share messages of love and support at a time when we need it most.

Introduced by Ant and Dec themselves, and supported by heartfelt messages from famous faces including Davina McCall, Susanna Reid, Lisa Riley and Gordon Ramsay, results today reveal how 43% of people who saw it made a phone, video call or sent a text message to a loved one as a result of Saturday's broadcast.

ITV SOCIAL PURPOSE REPORT

The results coincide with the release of ITV's Social Purpose Impact Report for 2019, which reveals how ITV's Social Purpose initiatives persuaded 4.1 million people to take action to improve their own or their families' mental or physical health in 2019.

This figure far exceeded ITV's 2019 goal of 2 million people taking action to look after their health through proactively looking after their mental wellness, eating better and moving more.

ITV's better health ambitions have been generated through two award winning campaigns - Britain Get Talking, the beginning of a five year project encouraging people to take action to look after their mental health, and Eat Them To Defeat Them, a partnership between ITV and Veg Power to persuade children to eat more healthily by eating more vegetables. ITV also supported The Daily Mile, an initiative urging schools to incorporate 15 minutes of outdoor physical activity every day.

All of these initiatives have returned in 2020, with dedicated advertising campaigns and support from some of ITV's most influential voices. ITV's goal is to encourage 10 million people to take action to look after their mental and physical health by 2023 - 2 million each year.

ALBERT CERTIFICATION

As well as encouraging better health, ITV has also committed to ambitious environmental targets. Today ITV announced it aims to be the first UK broadcaster to ensure all its shows reduce their carbon footprint.

The unique commitment means that every programme produced by ITV Studios, will have to demonstrate it has taken measures to reduce its environmental impact to meet Albert Certification standards. ITV Regional News has become the first UK newsroom to achieve albert certification, making it Britain's first sustainable regional news team.

Additionally, every programme commissioned from independent production companies for broadcast on air on ITV's family of channels will also be encouraged to meet those same standards.

SOCIAL PURPOSE HIGHLIGHTS

The highlights of each of the campaigns are outlined below:

Britain Get Talking - March 2020

42% of the UK public had seen or heard about the launch by Ant and Dec

43% of those who saw or heard about it got in touch with friends and family - that's over 3 million people

Britain Get Talking 2019

2.8 million people said they had started a conversation, or had a more meaningful conversation, with their children, family and friends as a result of seeing the initiative

4.5 million people said they would prioritise talking and listening having seen the campaign

Eat Them To Defeat Them 2019

650,000 children said they had eaten more vegetables as a result of the campaign

17.7 million extra units of vegetables were sold - an uplift in sales of 2.3%

Daily Mile 2019

2,400 additional schools signed up for the initiative, equating to 656,000 school children

Since ITV began supporting the Daily Mile in 2018, over 5,000 additional schools have signed up, which marks a 386% increase

Additionally ITV was awarded Silver the Mind Workplace Wellbeing index, and in February ITV announced their contribution to a £3m fund for the Film and TV charitys taskforce on mental health, including a 24/7 support line.

Clare Phillips, ITV Director of Social Purpose, said: The platforms ITV have at our disposal provide us with a fantastic opportunity to use our creativity, scale and influence to create and inspire change for the better, and the results we have outlined over the last few days with Britain Get Talking, and also in our Social Purpose Report, demonstrate how we are well on our way towards achieving that.

Ruth Davidson, SMP and Chair of ITV's Mental Health Advisory Group said I wholeheartedly support ITV's Britain Get Talking campaign. Opening up and talking may seem like the smallest of things but it can mean so much to others and that's why it's so important that ITV are championing this message. Mental health affects so many, and it is so easy to struggle in silence, but Britain Get Talking is one of the many ways we can tackle this.

Dame Rosie Boycott, chair of Veg Power, said The Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign has driven real behaviour change, and is loved by children and adults alike. Weve proven that the power of creative advertising can inspire children to eat more veg and reduce their chances of developing diet-related illness, so its crucial that we build on this success: industry, business and Government must forge ahead and promote veg in more dynamic and creative ways.

ITV's complete Social Purpose Impact Report for 2019 is published today (Wednesday 1st April).

NOTE TO EDITORS:

This announcement means that from now on the requirement to be awarded albert Certification will apply to all programmes produced by ITV Studios, its UK labels, ITV News and ITV Sport, and strongly encouraged for all programmes commissioned specif

LINK:	https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/return-britain-get-talk...
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