I recently attended Lifelines “Taboo or Not Taboo” lunch at Parliament House with my Goosebumps colleagues, Pete, Kath & Anthony.
Having worked with Lifeline Australia on a range of marketing and branding projects, we were honoured to be involved, working on creative ways to promote the event.
Hosted and facilitated by award winning journalist Hugh Riminton, the lunch featured a diverse panel of speakers including Chris Uhlmann, Jessica Rowe, John Brogden, Joe Roff and Professor Beverly Rafael. Together they covered controversial topics like mental illness, suicide, homosexuality, domestic violence, racism and more. 
The result was an extremely interesting, honest and frank discussion about todays’ taboo topics, why we find them so hard to talk about and what we can do to break them down and talk about them as a community.
Pete created a brand for the lunch based on the famous pop art painting series by Andy Warhol – a nice way to introduce the ‘Can of Worms’ conversation.
It was a stirling effort from the team specifically Pete, Kath and Anthony in building a Hugh Riminton-sized can of taboo subjects to decorate the stage (see below), as well as table centerpieces, pledge cards, and associated collateral.
Aside from increasing awareness, the event also raised money for Lifeline’s new ‘Lifeline Foundation for Suicide Prevention’. The money raised will go towards helping the Foundation conduct research and disseminate knowledge about how we can prevent more suicide in our community.
Such an incredibly important cause, given that suicide is the leading cause of death for people under 45 in Australia.
Congratulations to Lifeline for organising such a polished, interesting and worthwhile event!
If you or someone you know is experiencing a personal crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For more information about Lifeline’s services, or to find out about their online crisis chat visit www.lifeline.org.au
