Although advertising by the Samaritans, which provides support to the depressed and suicidal, has long been deployed in public arenas and in print and electronic media, its effectiveness is by definition impossible to measure.

Depression is often masked, and suicide statistics are thought to underestimate the numbers who take their lives.

Furthermore, the Samaritans’ service is confidential, so no correlation can be made between service and outcome.

The charity’s advertising has tended to emphasise its presence as a sympathetic ear and the current campaign, by HMG Advertising, continues this, encouraging those in need of help to talk.

“It’s easy to talk to Samaritans,” it opens, like a caring volunteer talking to viewers.

Perfectly pitched between hopefulness and the grind of day-to-day life, its dual nature is manifest in a split screen. One half is a wash of bleak black and white, the other a vale of hopeful green.

The ad begins in a rural setting with an empty phone kiosk. It immediately flags the nature of the Samaritans’ service as well as subliminally conveying a spooky sense of absence, reinforced by the next image of a tractor without a driver.

The ad then goes urban, moving to a claustrophobic town setting. Elements of the scene are vaguely recognisable but still sufficiently indistinct to convey, like the rural scene, both the isolation of individuals and the confidentiality of the Samaritans’ service.

“Anything you say is in complete confidence,” goes the gentle voice-over as a signpost bearing the words Emotional Support comes into view.

This soundbite is supported by others that appear on the green half of the screen. Suitably simple, direct and smart, the ad does not aim to win awards. That is the point: nor do the Samaritans.