Who Is A Real Man ?

International Men's Day, celebrated annually on November 19th, aims to raise global awareness of issues men face, such as parental alienation, abuse, and suicide. The 2023 theme, "Zero Male Suicide," focused on creating a supportive environment for men to express their emotions freely, countering societal pressures that have contributed to a rise in male suicides. NACK, an Afrocentric fashion brand with 80% of its audience being men, embraced this theme by delivering a strong message that resonated with their struggles. The brand validated men's emotions and highlighted the importance of addressing their mental health challenges.

The idea was to re-enact how the demands and expectations placed on men, create an unconscious pressure on them, particularly when these expectations are categorized as “his responsibility”. With this short film, we mirrored the reality for most men in a way that caused viewers to pause and reflect on their own actions and expectations towards the men in their lives.

With the foundation of our idea being to provoke much-needed moments of introspection which would spur conversations about how the majority of society ignores the feelings and emotions of men, our strategy was to deliver our message in a very direct, clear and punchy way, one that is almost impossible to miss. We focused on the core component of society – the family, combined with the show-and-tell approach to drive the message.

Our film was shot in a black-and-white frame as monochromaticity depicts a subtle sense of balance and resonates more with the emotions of audiences. We captured the responses from a fictional family spanning from the wife to the son, and mother of a man, answering an off-screen question – who is a real man? Their responses are interspersed with quick cuts to the man in question as we see him absorb the weight of responsibility. In a moment before the end, we see his composure crack, but it's quickly restored, showing creatively how men build a wall to hide their true emotions.