Depression comes in many forms. It's an illness that arises independently from what happens in life. It’s not sadness, melancholy or apathy. It can cause those feelings but feeling them doesn’t immediately mean you are depressed. At the same time, depression can be easily overlooked, hidden under a cloak of normality, which makes it even harder to identify.

That’s why the Deutsche Depressionhilfe offers a simple self-test to identify depression and help save lives. But how do we get people to take this test?

To bring this concept to life, we demonstrate how difficult it can be to identify depression by subverting people's assumptions. We show a character who is clearly experiencing a sad moment. At first glance, we feel the apathy, loneliness and sadness of the supposed protagonist and conclude that this is who the line is about. Only in the background, subtly, do we discover the person who is actually suffering from depression is not the one we first thought it to be.

Our image look is characterized by everyday situations in different locations. These snapshots are staged as authentically, simply and editorially as possible.