A story on a suicide awareness campaign that uses a photograph of the July 7 bombings, has been milling around the London media this week. The billboard poster contrasts the four "suicidal British men" who "got our attention" in 2005 with the 983 male suicide victims who did not.
The people behind the Campaign Against Living Miserably said their aim was to "provoke debate", but the debate - where it exists - has focussed on its tastelessness and misconceptions. King's Cross survivor Rachel North thinks the charity's aim is praiseworthy but puts the case against this particular campaign:
"It implies that the London bombers primary aim was suicide, rather than homicide. It infers that they were simply feeling suicidally depressed [...] It even seems to be saying that perhaps the 4 bombers could have been stopped from committing suicide, maybe if they had been made aware of the charity paying for the ads.
"But there is no official evidence to support the idea that the young men who killed 52 and injured almost 800 last summer were depressed. The official account of the July 7 bombings describes the young bombers caught on CCTV as 'hugging, seeming happy, even euphoric' before they killed themselves."
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