Let's Talk Eating Disorders: Support and Resources in Arabic
Butterfly Foundation
Overview
Ethnolink partnered with the Butterfly Foundation to develop and deliver a culturally responsive mental health campaign for Arabic-speaking communities across Australia. Combining audience insights, community co-design, creative production, multilingual communications and multicultural media, the campaign tackled stigma around eating disorders through authentic storytelling and trusted community engagement.
Challenge
Eating disorders remain highly stigmatised within many Arabic-speaking communities, limiting awareness, help-seeking and access to culturally appropriate support. The Butterfly Foundation needed a trusted communications approach that could engage diverse Arabic-speaking audiences while navigating cultural sensitivities around mental health and lived experience.
Solution
Ethnolink delivered the campaign end-to-end, beginning with audience analysis to validate Arabic-speaking Australians as a priority audience before conducting qualitative interviews with community members, carers and health professionals to inform campaign messaging.
Insights gathered through community consultation shaped every stage of the project—from communications strategy and script development to creative execution. Where cultural sensitivities prevented participants with lived experience from appearing on camera, Ethnolink developed an innovative solution by working with professional actors using stories co-created and approved by people with lived experience, preserving both authenticity and privacy.
The campaign included three Arabic-language hero videos, social media content, radio advertising, web content, print collateral and stakeholder resources. Ethnolink also planned and delivered multicultural media placement, community stakeholder distribution and was part of a campaign launch event to maximise reach through trusted channels.
The campaign successfully increased awareness of eating disorders within Arabic-speaking communities while demonstrating the value of a community-led, culturally tailored communications approach. Post-campaign evaluation found that 96% of participants reported increased awareness of eating disorders and body image issues, while 93% considered the content relevant to their community. Campaign materials achieved a 96% rating for clarity and cultural appropriateness, with 70% of participants saying they were more likely to support someone experiencing an eating disorder after engaging with the campaign. In just one month, the campaign generated 2,457 website visits and 93,585 Meta advertising impressions, while Arabic-language radio advertising achieved a combined potential audience of approximately 688,000 people.
