Sometimes a single message can turn someone's life around
Em Portugal, onde a saúde mental já fragilizava antes da pandemia e se deteriorou ainda mais depois dela, três das maiores operadoras de telecomunicações do país escolheram transformar as suas campanhas de Natal em apelos à conexão humana, à empatia e ao pedido de ajuda. A Vodafone, a NOS e a MEO reconhecem, cada uma à sua maneira, que a solidão e o sofrimento psicológico são crises silenciosas que atravessam gerações — e que uma palavra, uma mensagem ou uma chamada podem ser o primeiro passo para as enfrentar. É um gesto corporativo, mas também um espelho de uma sociedade que começa a nomear o que durante muito tempo preferiu calar.
- A saúde mental em Portugal atingiu níveis de deterioração preocupantes, com crianças e adolescentes entre os mais afetados pelo isolamento e pelas sequelas da pandemia.
- Apesar de o estigma em torno da terapia infantil ter diminuído, o país não tem recursos sistémicos suficientes — escolas sem prioridade para a saúde mental, hospitais com capacidade limitada e acesso privado reservado a quem pode pagar.
- As três operadoras lançaram campanhas que abordam temas distintos mas convergentes: pedir ajuda sem vergonha, combater a solidão com presença, e defender a empatia como fundamento da convivência.
- Especialistas reconhecem o valor simbólico destas iniciativas, mas alertam que campanhas publicitárias não substituem as mudanças estruturais e culturais que Portugal ainda precisa de fazer.
Três das maiores operadoras de telecomunicações portuguesas — Vodafone, NOS e MEO — decidiram usar as suas campanhas de Natal para falar de saúde mental, solidão e empatia. A escolha não é inocente: Portugal regista algumas das taxas mais elevadas de depressão adulta na Europa, e os problemas psicológicos em crianças e adolescentes agravaram-se significativamente desde a pandemia. Segundo a psicóloga Patrícia Dâmaso, do Hospital da Luz, o declínio já existia antes da COVID-19 — o confinamento apenas acelerou o que estava em curso.
A Vodafone conta a história de um jovem que sai de casa em crise no dia de Natal e, por acaso, atende o telemóvel de uma desconhecida junto a um lago. A conversa que se segue torna-se um encontro, e o jovem regressa a casa capaz de falar com os pais sobre o que sente. A mensagem é direta: pedir ajuda é um ato de coragem, não de fraqueza. A NOS escolheu retratar a solidão como uma epidemia silenciosa, seguindo a vida de um homem que, após anos de deriva e isolamento, recebe uma mensagem da mãe a dizer que está lá para ele. A operadora alargou os seus pacotes de comunicação para tornar a ligação entre pessoas mais acessível. A MEO optou por uma abordagem sobre tolerância e liberdade de expressão, mostrando dois irmãos em desacordo sobre o Pai Natal que aprendem a coexistir — um argumento pela empatia como direito humano fundamental.
Patrícia Dâmaso vê nestas campanhas um sinal positivo de desestigmatização, mas sublinha que compreender o problema não é o mesmo que resolvê-lo. Portugal carrega um legado histórico de décadas de ditadura que moldou profundamente a sua cultura emocional e social. As crianças continuam a pedir nas cartas ao Pai Natal que as famílias sejam felizes — um reflexo da pressão para performar bem-estar em vez de o viver. As campanhas das operadoras abrem uma conversa necessária, mas as mudanças estruturais — nos sistemas de saúde, nas escolas, no acesso equitativo ao apoio psicológico — estão ainda por fazer.
Three of Portugal's largest telecom companies have chosen to spend their Christmas advertising budget on something unexpected: mental health. Vodafone, NOS, and MEO are running campaigns this season that ask viewers to check in on themselves and those around them, to recognize loneliness as a serious threat, and to understand that difference and empathy can coexist. The choice reflects a darker reality beneath the holiday cheer—Portuguese mental health has been deteriorating, especially since the pandemic ended, and the damage is most visible in the country's children and teenagers.
The deterioration did not begin with COVID-19. According to Patrícia Dâmaso, a psychologist at Hospital da Luz, Portuguese mental health was already struggling before the pandemic arrived. The isolation of lockdowns, the forced togetherness of confinement, the shift to remote work, and the fear of an unknown disease accelerated what was already a decline. Now, Portugal carries some of the highest rates of depression among adults in Europe, and complaints from children and adolescents have risen sharply. Yet even as more young people seek help—a sign that stigma around therapy for children has weakened—the country lacks the systemic resources to meet the need. Schools have not made mental health a priority. Hospital capacity is limited. Those who can afford private care receive it; those who cannot wait or go without.
Vodafone's campaign centers on a young man who leaves home on Christmas Day in crisis, unable to manage his mental health alone. By chance, he answers a stranger's phone call by a lake. The woman on the other end is looking for her phone, but when she realizes he is struggling, she stays on the line. They talk as they walk toward each other. When they meet, he thanks her for the company and returns home to tell his parents what he has been going through. The message is simple: asking for help is not weakness. Leonor Dias, Vodafone's brand director, explained that the company has spent recent years addressing socially difficult topics because they believe such conversations matter. The fact that younger people are facing mental health crises with increasing severity made this year the right moment. Vodafone itself offers employees a digital program that provides free consultations with mental health specialists—a small gesture, but one that signals to workers that the company has made space for them to take that first step.
NOS approached the problem through the lens of loneliness, which the company describes as a silent epidemic. Their campaign follows a man's life in a carousel of moments: childhood with his parents' support, meeting a woman, marriage, employment, then the slow unraveling—staying late at work, drifting from his wife, separation, isolation. At the end, his mother sends him a message saying she is there for him. The implication is that sometimes a single message can turn someone's life around. Rita Torres Baptista, NOS's brand and communications director, noted that unlike many social problems, loneliness can be fought by anyone. Everyone has a circle of relationships, and within that circle, attention and presence can make all the difference. To back up the message, NOS expanded its data, SMS, and calling packages to make connection easier and cheaper.
MEO chose to focus on human rights—specifically freedom of thought, opinion, and expression. Their advertisement shows a boy who believes in Santa Claus and a girl who does not. Each campaigns for their position, gaining supporters, until the disagreement becomes an international movement. The twist: they are siblings, and they live together despite their fundamental disagreement. The message is that empathy and tolerance can be the foundation of a better world. Luíza Galindo, MEO's marketing and communications director, acknowledged that being different requires courage in a society driven by conflict, especially one amplified by social media. The company wanted to remind viewers that inclusion is a basic human right.
Patrícia Dâmaso, the psychologist, sees the campaigns as a positive step toward destigmatizing mental health in Portugal. But she is clear-eyed about how much work remains. Portugal lived under dictatorship for decades, and that history has left deep marks on how society organizes itself culturally and socially. Even children's letters to Santa Claus reveal the problem: they ask for their families to be happy, reinforcing the idea that they must be good, must perform, must earn happiness. True mental health, Dâmaso argues, means knowing when to ask for help and understanding that sadness is sometimes part of being human. The campaigns suggest that Portugal's largest companies are beginning to understand this too. But understanding is not the same as changing the systems that fail people. That work is still ahead.
Citações Notáveis
The society we have values behavior highly, but children are hungry for happiness. Being happy and knowing when to ask for help when you're sad—that's mental health.— Patrícia Dâmaso, psychologist at Hospital da Luz
Loneliness is a silent epidemic that can only be fought if we have the support of those around us. Sometimes all it takes is a message for someone to turn their life around.— Rita Torres Baptista, NOS brand and communications director
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did these three companies choose mental health for Christmas, of all times?
Because the damage is visible now in a way it wasn't before. Children are struggling openly. The pandemic cracked something that was already broken. Companies can see it in their own employees, in the culture around them. Christmas is when people are supposed to be happy, so it becomes the moment to ask: what if you're not?
Do you think an advertisement actually changes how someone seeks help?
Not by itself. But it gives permission. It says the company you pay every month thinks this matters. It says your peers are thinking about it. That's not nothing. A psychologist told me that even children's Christmas wishes show how much we've taught them to hide. An ad that says asking for help is normal—that's a small crack in that wall.
The psychologist mentioned Portugal's history under dictatorship. How does that connect to mental health now?
Authoritarian systems teach people to be silent, to perform, to not show weakness. That doesn't disappear when the regime does. It lives in how schools are run, how families talk, how hospitals are funded. You can't just advertise your way out of that inheritance.
So why bother with the campaigns at all?
Because you have to start somewhere. These companies reach millions of people. If they're saying mental health matters, that's a signal that the conversation is shifting. It won't fix the system, but it might make someone pick up the phone who wouldn't have before.
What about the loneliness campaign—is that different?
It's more actionable. NOS is saying: you have a circle of people. You can do something today. Send a message. Call someone. It's not asking people to fix themselves; it's asking them to notice each other. That's almost more radical than it sounds.