Vinnie Jones has returned to the Chelsea FC dressing room for the first time in more than 30 years to deliver a “rousing” team talk today’s players about the importance of talking about their mental health in a new campaign from Three UK, Chelsea and Samaritans.
In what is the second instalment of the ‘Talk More Than Football’ campaign – designed to encourage football fans to ‘talk more’ with one another – Jones looks set to deliver the ‘hair dryer treatment’ to Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Robert Sanchez and Alfie Gilchrist.
Instead, he candidly uses his own struggles to encourage them to reach out to others. The content draws inspiration from a motivational team talk and urges football fans of all ages to start conversations around wellbeing within their social and support networks.
Devised by Wonderhood Studios, the multi-channel campaign follows the launch of the initial campaign in April 2023. It includes a 60-second social video that will go live in the afternoon of this week’s Chelsea vs Manchester United game, and a two-and-a-half-minute TV ad featured on TNT and Sky Sports.
According to research carried out by Three, one in four (27%) fans said that seeing well-known people talk more regularly about mental health would help them do it too.
A further two-thirds (65%) would like to know how to broach the subject and 62% would like a prompt to talk about it more regularly.
The #TalkMoreThanFootball ‘team talk’ serves as a passionate call to action for football fans to start conversations about mental health with friends or loved ones, while also offering practical tips on how they can do it.
Three UK director of marketing Aislinn O’Connor said: “With Vinnie Jones delivering a compelling team talk we want communities to use their shared passions, like football, to open up about mental health. The campaign is a unique collaboration bringing together our sponsorship and charity partners to deliver an important message to this audience that it helps to Talk More Than Football.”
Jones played professionally as a defensive midfielder from 1984 to 1999, notably for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, and QPR, although he only played one season at the Stamford Bridge club, 1991/92.
His acting career began with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; his most recent role has been in the Guy Ritchie Netflix series, The Gentlemen.
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