A post appears on my Facebook feed from a group called Mental Health Matters. It will have appeared because of the platform’s use of AI and its cunning algorithms. Mental health, of course, does matter, so I am drawn in. I am well aware of the work of the excellent charity, Mental Health Matters. And there’s a clear reference to World Suicide Prevention Day, too. I love the message on the hoodie, which only costs £20 and you get a free T shirt. It seems too good to be true and very quickly I realise that it is.
The Facebook group Mental Health Matters has nothing to do Mental Health Matters. Behind it is a company called Stay Another Day, supposedly owned by someone called MacKenzie Nelson. I smell a rat. Her website says this: ‘Stay Another Day Ltd, is a female led, family operated, small business. Mackenzie Nelson, through her own personal struggles, and battles was the inspiration of, and necessity for the Stay Another Brand was born.’ Hmm, okay.
Over 700,000 people die worldwide every year from suicide. In the UK alone, there are estimated to be around 200,000 people who attempt suicide in any given year. Over 7000 people in the UK succeed in ending their own lives. Every little helps, right?
The Facebook ad for Stay Another Day is utterly dishonest. It has nothing to do with World Suicide Prevention Day, which takes place on 10th September every year. As I write, it’s 31st October 2025. The next one is nearly a year away. As we have already observed, it has nothing to do with the real charity and, highly offensively in my view, the ad says: “Every order supports awareness.” That’s debatable at the very least. Sainsbury’s might as well say: “Every purchase supports awareness of food poverty.”
Stay Another Day does not give stuff away, does not donate to charities or, from what I can tell, or provide any meaningful assistance to people with mental health conditions. In other words, it’s a private limited company selling tat to make money off the back of very sick people.
I should point out that there is probably nothing illegal in what this business is doing. And yes, maybe a message might be of the slightest assistance to someone, who knows? But it’s not MIND, is it, or Heads Together, charities that exist not to enrich the people running them (at least I hope not)?
This is the magic of Facebook and the algorithms and the instructions its AI uses to carry out its tasks. I suspect Facebook has picked up on my keen interest in mental health and that’s how it appeared on my feed. It’s how we all get recommended stuff if we use the shit show that Facebook is becoming. And in my experience the things that appear on one’s feed are at best of piss poor quality, grossly misleading (like Stay Another Day) and at worst scams.
For all I know, MacKenzie Nelson does exist, despite her minimal online footprint, and I am not in a position to question her comments about the mental illness she says she has suffered. But Stay Another Day is a business, set up to make money and the way to make money is to lure credulous people into buy her merch. Every order supports her bank account. Beware of ads like this on Facebook. In fact, avoid all of them. These people want your money, that’s all.
