The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2022–2023
NAVerse puts Narcotics Anonymous meetings in the metaverse, anonymous behind avatars
Shame at being recognised keeps addicts from NA, so Havas Play built the first NA meeting in the metaverse, where avatars guarantee anonymity.
Havas Play · Narcotiques Anonymes
What it had to solve
Narcotics Anonymous is a worldwide non-profit for people who have struggled with drugs, and the main reason people do not attend is shame — the fear of being recognised and seen as an addict. Meetings existed; the barrier was being visible in one.
How it works
Narcotics Anonymous depends on people telling their stories face to face, and that is exactly why many addicts never come: the shame of being recognised and labelled as an addict keeps them away from the very room built to help them.
Havas Play and Les Narcotiques Anonymes treated that barrier as a design brief and built NAVerse, described as the first NA meeting in the metaverse. Members share, listen and support each other behind virtual avatars, so no one in the room can identify anyone else — anonymity stops being a promise and becomes the mechanism.
As a pilot, NAVerse showed a transferable move: when stigma keeps people out of a service, the service can change shape instead of waiting for people to change their feelings. D&AD filed the project in its awards archive under digital marketing.
Why it lands
- The block was social, not logistical — addicts knew meetings existed but feared being seen; NAVerse engineered the anonymity the format needed.
- Avatars do not just hide faces, they equalise: everyone in the room is equally unidentifiable, which suits a fellowship that depends on frank sharing.
- Turning the barrier into the design brief gave the metaverse a humane use — a place where vulnerability is safe instead of another hype space.
- The pilot extends NA's core promise that what is shared stays in the room to a room where a member cannot even be recognised entering it.
What it did
A pilot that made anonymity the product instead of a promise: with recognition impossible, the shame barrier lost its power, and D&AD filed NAVerse in its awards archive as the first NA meeting in the metaverse.
What you can take
When the obstacle is the shame of being identified, do not argue people out of it — engineer anonymity into the format itself, and the fear has nothing to attach to.
Since then
NAVerse entered D&AD's awards archive as a digital-marketing reference for the first NA meeting in the metaverse, and its idea — remove the possibility of recognition rather than ask people to bear it — remains the transferable part as avatar-based spaces spread. The format reframed what recovery support can be: not a room people must walk into, but a space they can inhabit without being seen.
Sources
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