Remember how cruel Logan Roy was to his subordinates on “Succession”? Turns out the real villain in the workplace is your desk, at least according to a new public service announcement from ASICS.
The athletic brand says the effort, starring “Succession” villain Brian Cox, is part of its “Movement for the Mind Breaks” to support mental health.
“Shut up,” Cox says, facing the camera with his trademark sneer. “Look at you, trading your mental health for free fruit and a wellness Wednesday. F*ck the fruit. Wake up, geniuses.”
The ad finishes with a strict directive: Just move. For your mind.
ASICS, the Japanese athletic brand founded on “Sound Mind, in A Sound Body" in 1977, has long approached mental health as a byproduct of physical exercise. And its recent global State of Mind study found that “people’s mental state declined significantly after three to four hours of uninterrupted desk-based working.”
advertisement
advertisement
Just 15 minutes of exercise is enough to reverse these effects. Short breaks also improve people’s perceptions of their workplace.
Specifically, the company’s Desk Break Experiment, overseen by a researcher at King's College London, found that when office workers added 15 minutes of movement into the workday, their mental state improved by almost 23%.
“The experiment showed that taking a daily Desk Break for just one week lowered stress levels by 14.7%, boosted productivity by 33.2% and improved focus by 28.6%,” the company says. “Participants reported feeling 33.3% more relaxed and 28.6% more calm and resilient. And 79.2% of participants said they would be more loyal to their employers if offered regular movement breaks.”
Short breaks also improve people’s perceptions of their workplace.
To celebrate World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, the brand is also pushing a #DeskBreak challenge to help raise funds for mental health charities worldwide, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the largest grassroots mental health organization in the U.S.