New Zealand launched a campaign today to help the country’s young people get over painful breakups, encouraging broken hearts to “come to terms with their feelings” and block their exes on social media.

The government’s ‘Love Better’ campaign offers advice and support to recover when love ends and will be featured on podcasts and platforms such as Instagram.

“Breakups are crap … but you can make them look beautiful. Take control of your emotions,” says a soothing voice in the campaign video.

The images show young people explaining how they dealt with their breakup.

“I have to. It’s getting ridiculous, it’s getting so out of control. I need to sleep at night. I have to forget about it,” says a distraught young man who started blocking his ex on social media.

Social Development Minister Priyanka Radhakrishnan said the government is committing NZ$6.4 million (€3.7 million) to the campaign over three years.

“We know that separations hurt. We want to support our young people (…) and let them know that there is a way out without harming themselves or others,” he said.

As he explained, “Love Better” is a “primary prevention campaign” that enables young people to share “true stories to help peers who may be going through similar experiences.”

Six in 10 New Zealanders between the ages of 16 and 24 have experienced a breakup and the vast majority of them subsequently “suffered or caused harmful consequences”, according to figures from Kantar.

New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates among developed countries, according to UNICEF.