Sexist and dangerous Samaritans ad

Why are they perpetuating the message that anyone severely depressed can snap out of it with a little chat?

I don't think they're saying that, just sometimes if you're spiralling, your mind's all over the place or in a dark place, someone speaking about something mundane or trivial can pull you out and "ground" you momentarily, bring you back to the present.
Grounding - look up what it is if you're not sure (meant genuinely, not patronisingly, as sometimes many people haven't heard of it.

Same I showed it to my DP (not in a "well my DP who is king says ... " way, more in a hes clueless and can never seem to see subtle meanings in things, ever, way)

His response was "I hope you never approach a weird guy asking where to go for a coffee he'll think youre flirting, when you can just Google the nearest one on your phone".

Quite insightful for a man who wouldn't normally know a hint if it flew over in sky writing.

Would the people behind this advert also be advocating for a non-medically trained person to go and administer first aid to someone who had fallen, or passed out?

Why are they perpetuating the message that anyone severely depressed can snap out of it with a little chat?

It's a nice, bright day too, how convenient it's not dark. Should the nice lady also be primed and ready to assess a situation at night and approach a man then too?

And totally yes to the stylishly-dressed version lady being free of troubles vs the dowdy one, burdened by life. She's only adding to her downtrodden glumness by being too lazy to step in to the mental health crisis of a stranger.

I didn't mean the Nescafé ad was related to Princess Diana, but coffee and flirting goes back a long way.

Just showed my partner the ad and he saw her approach as an invitation for them both to have coffee, despite that not being her actual words.

The staff member is stood still. Not approaching.

Have to ask, if almost everyone on this thread can see the issues, maybe they are right.

FWIW there is no way in hell I would approach any man who looked thunderous in any place, but definitely not near a train track with a train due soon. And the coffee thing is just ridiculous.

Good point. It’s really quite a minefield. We’ve had a number of suicides at my local station over the years and I have often thought about what I’d do if I saw someone who looked like they were thinking about it, and my instinctive thought has always been to go and tell the staff, it has never been ‘I’ll go and talk to him myself’.

It’s just of all the opening lines you could use to a man who doesn’t look very stable asking about coffee seems like a dumb choice from the ad agency. It’s just a word that could easily be misconstrued by someone not thinking straight.

I don’t think bridges are a good example at the moment where we have had a v high profile incident of a man jumping off one after he had just thrown acid at a woman and two girls. No one knew this at the time as it hadn’t made the news. Thank goodness no young naive woman approached him trying to help!

I think so too. And people do this kind of thing anyway without stopping to think. My friend was crossing the big bridge over the river late at night and came across a young man standing on the parapet. His eyes were shut tight, he kept crossing himself,and at the same time he was shuffling tiny steps towards the edge.

She hurried over, quiet as she could, and then just said could she help him somehow and he got impatient because she had broken his concentration...
She kept talking about trivia and gradually he was drawn into a conversation. An hour later he got down on to the bridge and walked off with a wee wave to her.
I reckon she saved his life.

You can take it at https://www.zerosuicidealliance.com/suicide-awareness-training without needing a login account for my work training portal.

It can be interpreted as an invitation for a date.

Zero Suicide Alliance online training presentation. You don't start the conversation with that but they emphasise that you need to be confident using that word during the conversation and not euphemise with terms like "doing something silly".

The pic is of one of the screens.

Deliberately don’t look at grand theft auto, because its horrible. Haven’t seen Brassed Off. clearly, a philistine.

I have no idea what sex and coffee have to do with each other, apart from the very old “coming in for a coffee line”. Which is not what the woman in the ad says at all. Hell of a stretch to suggest anyone would think she is.

• Hot Coffee Mod of Grand Theft Auto
• Gloria inviting Andy up for coffee that he doesn't drink and she doesn't have in Brassed Off.

You are actually demonstrating my point here: coffee is widely but not universally understood to refer to sex in British society, meaning that a woman not in the know is at risk of being misunderstood by a man who is.

This campaign is dangerous

Nope, sorry, still means nothing @ Woman2023. Know the ad, no idea what it has to do with Princess Diana.
Maybe I was busy with my own life 😁

I can only assume you forget references... Nescafé gold blend advert?

Because women manage risk by avoiding being alone with strangers.

This means the only men left who have access to us are our partners.

If women treated male strangers with the same trust we extend to our own family, a lot more women would be murdered each week.

Also, how many men are attacked by female strangers?

I work in marketing and it's a terrible ad. It's obviously unsafe for a woman to approach a lone man struggling with some sort of crisis. It's really weird the way they've used hair and makeup as indicator of a 'good' and 'mean' woman. Just awful messaging.

Even if women are more likely to be the victim of the man in this scenario.

I don't think they are though are they? Men are something like 4x more likely to be attacked by a stranger. Women are at the greatest risk at home and around their partners I thought.

Deserted? There was another person standing right behind the 'strange' man and more across the platform.

It's a terrible ad. What if the man asked to join her for coffee, does she then have to follow through? Also why the two different outfits for the woman? It is sexist. I don't know any man who would feel he had to intervene if another man looked grumpy while waiting for a train. Why is it the woman's obligation?

ScribblingPixie
**
It makes me think of Princess Diana's "What does a girl have to do to get a coffee around here?" chat up line to James Hewitt. I'd read it as an invitation for sure.”

I have no idea what that refers to (at 59) If someone asked me where I could get a coffee, I’d point them to the nearest coffee shop, would read nothing else into it at all. Would have had the same response in the 90s.

(Wondering if you were able to find that name, @VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia: no worries if you’re busy but really interested).

So, so glad that you’re here to post and that a strangers went with their gut to help you.

Same