Some brands have a visual device. Rexulti's was a paper plate. A smiley face you hold up while you're falling apart behind it. It worked. It had equity. And the client didn't want to lose it. The brief wasn't "reinvent the campaign." It was "give us a new spot with the same plate." So we did.

We looked at the plate and asked what it was really doing. It wasn't a plate. It was a lie. A way of saying "I'm fine" without anyone looking close enough to check. And once we saw it that way, it just fell into our hands. The phone. The text. The thumbs-up emoji sent from bed at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday. You don't have to be clinically diagnosed with depression to relate to that. "I'm Fine" kept the plate but gave the hiding a second language. One the audience was already fluent in.