The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2023–2024
BENEE and neuroscientists release "Bagels", a pop song built to lower anxiety in listeners
BENEE paired with neuroscientists to write a pop single scientifically designed to reduce anxiety in the one in four young New Zealanders affected.
The Monkeys Aotearoa · BENEE
What it had to solve
One in four young New Zealanders suffer anxiety, yet the help offered to them usually sits outside the media they already choose. The brief was to build a tool inside that medium: a pop song that itself reduces anxiety.
How it works
One in four young New Zealanders suffer anxiety, yet most tools offered to them — clinics, apps, campaigns — require going out of their way. BENEE, New Zealand's biggest music star, and a team of neuroscientists set out to build the help inside the medium young people already choose: the pop song.
The collaboration, made by The Monkeys Aotearoa, produced 'Bagels', a single created by pairing the artist with neuroscientists so that the music itself could reduce anxiety in listeners.
Where many mental-health campaigns tell an audience to get help, this one embedded the help in the song: pressing play is the intervention, and the track works as a tool as well as a release.
The work reframed what a pop release can do and is held in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- One in four young New Zealanders experience anxiety, so the scale demanded a working tool rather than a one-off message.
- Pairing a pop star with neuroscientists meant the song was engineered for effect instead of merely inspired by the topic.
- Putting the aid inside a song lowers the barrier to use: anxious listeners already reach for music.
- A mainstream single by the country's biggest star carries the idea to young audiences without a health-campaign frame.
What it did
The collaboration turned the pop single itself into a mental-health tool for the one in four young New Zealanders affected by anxiety, and the work is held in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
When the fix can live inside the medium, embed it: a song engineered with scientists helps anxious listeners rather than only talking about them.
Since then
Bagels by BENEE gave young New Zealanders a mental-health aid shaped like the music they already listen to, born from a partnership between the country's biggest pop star and a team of neuroscientists. The song reframed what a pop release can do, and the work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive as a ground-breaking music-and-neuroscience collaboration.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card