Man Up
Also: Man Up (documentary, 2016)
Three-part Australian television documentary series (2016) exploring masculinity and male suicide, with a companion website and multimedia strategy promoting help-seeking; funded by the Movember Foundation and evaluated by the University of Melbourne.
- Years
- 2016
- Country
- Australia
- Topic
- Mental healthSuicide prevention
- Asks people to
- Seek helpTalk to someone
- Strategy
- Entertainment educationTestimonial
- Channel
- Social (organic)TV
- Audience
- AdultsMenMen.
Evidence
ExperimentalPositive
Double-blind RCT (King et al. 2018; n=354 men not at risk, ACTRN12616001169437): viewing Man Up raised help-seeking intentions at 4 weeks versus a control documentary (coef 2.06, 95% CI 0.48-3.63). Website reached 43,140 users with 307 outbound clicks to help services and 802 downloads (King et al. 2019). Safe messaging: focus on masculinity, connection and recovery rather than suicide deaths; excluded at-risk participants, so effects on vulnerable men unknown.
Sponsor (who paid)
- Movember Foundation NGO, funder
- University of Melbourne, Centre for Mental Health Academic, evaluator
Credits (who made it)
- Jane Pirkis Research evaluation, 2016-2019 source
Related campaigns
- Movember 2003–now
- HeadsUpGuys 2015–now
- Man Therapy 2012–now
Sources
- King KE et al. Can a documentary increase help-seeking intentions in men? A randomised controlled trial. J Epidemiol Community Health 2018;72(1):92-98 evaluation · 2017 · DOI 10.1136/jech-2017-209502 · PMID 29101215
- King K et al. Evaluating the effectiveness of a website about masculinity and suicide to prompt help-seeking. Health Promot J Austr 2019;30(3):381-389 evaluation · 2019 · DOI 10.1002/hpja.237 · PMID 30803102
- Schlichthorst M et al. Influencing the Conversation About Masculinity and Suicide: Evaluation of the Man Up Multimedia Campaign Using Twitter Data. JMIR Ment Health 2018 evaluation · 2018 · DOI 10.2196/mental.9120 · PMID 29449203
Research notes
Broadcaster and presenter not verified from a source seen here. Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Jane Pirkis (Crossref record of the JECH RCT: King, Schlichthorst, Spittal, Phelps, Pirkis). Corrected 2026-10-22: source added (previously none). Evaluation sources added 2026-10-22 (citation snowballing / helpline pass): Schlichthorst 2018; evidence level and outcome unchanged.
Record cases/man-up.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign