The Public House and Movember Ask Ireland to Cancel Secret Santa

The Public House has launched a new action-driven campaign for men’s health charity Movember, driving donations beyond the month-long moustache-growing initiative they run every November.

The campaign, ‘Cancel Secret Santa’, is calling for the people of Ireland to do exactly that, and take a break from their annual festive gift exchanges and reroute the money into donations to support men’s health in Ireland.

Bold OOH in high footfall Christmas retail locations asked people to forgo buying scented candles, novelty socks and other secret santa gifts and make donations that would help Movember tackle mental health and suicide, prostate cancer and testicular cancer instead. During a time of year when warm, loving messages abound - this campaign relied on striking visuals and an arresting call to action.

As part of the campaign, the charity commissioned a poll to discover the people of Ireland’s true feelings about Secret Santa. It turns out that while most people (54%) in Ireland take part in Secret Santa in the workplace, one in four actually dread the tradition. The poll made some revealing discoveries relating to office gift buying, with 35% admitting to buying their gifts at the last minute, while 41% believe it to be a waste of money.

It would also appear that many gifts are never used, with 40% of those polled admitting to leaving their gifts in the office. Similarly, 49% of participants have feigned interest in a gift that they received to avoid any awkwardness.

The ‘Cancel Secret Santa’ campaign, seen on Adshel Live sites across Ireland, kindly donated by Clear Channel, comes amidst the busy period for men’s mental health services and Movember Ireland hoping to make a positive impact this December with the nation still in the midst of a cost of living crisis.

Johnny Owens, country director at Movember Ireland said, “It’s fair to say that the novelty has worn off novelty presents, so instead of filling a landfill with novelty mugs and Bieber t-shirts, you could donate to Movember Ireland that will help us to support men’s health programmes here. The Irish Secret Santa market is astonishingly large and if we could convince a small percentage of Irish businesses to ditch something that has become a chore we could make a big difference.”

Paddy O’Mahoney, associate creative director at The Public House added: “Nobody likes a scrooge, and this campaign isn’t anti-Christmas. We just saw an opportunity for people to turn often meaningless gifts into really meaningful donations.”

500 workers across 32 counties were surveyed via pollsters Bounce Insights.