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Barney Ronay

May I recommend you start your Saturday by reading Barney Ronay’s latest column on the Premier League’s work with the Together in Suicide campaign.

If you watched US television adverts during the World Cup for any length of time one thing just kept leaping out. I’ve mentioned this before here, but it still seems both jarring and significant. Every third or fourth rotation in that endless daytime scroll, in between the Chicken Megadeth Hyper-Box Family Meal Deal, either side of David Beckham expertly consuming a light beer, is an advert for antidepressants.

The format for these is always the same kind of thing: contented, wholesome people throwing frisbees, or strolling through a small-town antiques fair, while a warm, honeyed, reassuring voiceover talks about how horrifying their lives are, with the suggestion that only a lengthy course of Smileothorium can solve this.

In another world there would be a call to study this phenomenon, to consider why a nation of such dazzling abundance and opportunity should also feel glazed, worthless and deprived of hope. But this is not that world. More than 50 million Americans have depression. This is demand and supply in action, a battle for market share in a £6bn industry. The US often worries about itself in its post-industrial age. What are we now? What can we still make? Where is the new frontier? Well, human misery is looking pretty hot right now.

The reason for talking about this here is that English football is doing a good thing this week. Between 4-14 September the Premier League is sponsoring the Together Against Suicide campaign. Harry Kane and Prince William have spoken warmly in support. The league is posting words of solidarity on its X account, which is probably not the best way to cheer yourself up if we’re being honest.

Read Barney Ronay’s column in full:

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