In America, almost 15,000 children are killed or injured in gun-related incidents every year. People seem to have accepted this “new normal,” and focus on teaching kids how to survive school shootings, rather than preventing them.

Sandy Hook Promise believes this is the wrong approach. Since forming in 2012, Sandy Hook Promise has dedicated itself to preventing school shootings by teaching kids and parents to spot the telltale signs of a potential shooter. The objective of the PSA was thus to shock people out of their acceptance of this “new normal” and encourage them to learn these signs.

Sandy Hook Promise normally releases a new PSA every year on the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. But they decided to release the latest PSA as students were preparing to return to school after the summer vacation. As a result, this was an entirely new creative idea.

The possibility of yet another school shooting was very much on everyone’s mind as students prepared to return to school after the summer holidays of 2019. It was into this tense atmosphere that Sandy Hook Promise released their latest PSA. At first, it appears to be just another typical back-to-school ad. A boy at his school locker talks about his perfect new backpack. A girl in a classroom mentions her colorful new binders. But things soon take a darker turn when it becomes clear that a shooter is active in the school, and the pupils have to start using their new school items to save their lives. A skateboard is used to smash a window to create an escape route. A sock becomes a tourniquet. The commercial closes by pointing out that it’s possible to prevent school shootings by learning to spot the signs of a potential shooter.

The objective of the film was to break the stalemate in the gun debate and get both sides of the political spectrum talking about the telltale warning signs of a potential shooter. To reach the target demographic of U.S. students, parents and educators, Sandy Hook Promise leveraged their existing PR relationships with news outlets, celebrities and influencers to create a PR rollout in the days before students returned to school after the summer vacation. The PR ability of the spot was baked into the idea and the timing of the launch. “Back-to-school” stories were already in the media, so a PSA that starts out like a back-to-school commercial before becoming a depiction of a school shooting was always going to get traction.

The PSA was launched as U.S. students were returning to school after the summer break. The goal was to make it seem like just another one of the hundreds of back-to-school ads that were flooding the media at this time. To help achieve this, influencers were recruited to release the film on their channels as a “back-to-school” film–without revealing that it was for Sandy Hook Promise. Several influencers (including YouTube stars Madi Westbrooke and Blake Linder/Bsneak) also created their own content, turning their back-to-school shopping “haul videos” into shooting survival guides. People kept sharing the PSA, with the result that it received 26 million views in the first 24 hours alone.

The PSA became a trending topic on Twitter and got 26 million views in the first 24 hours. The story generated 3.9 billion media impressions and was picked up by every major news outlet including Fox News, CCN, BBC and the New York Times. It generated 4,400 media stories—all with just $37K of paid media. Even Kim Kardashian and 11 of the 2020 presidential candidates sharing it on Twitter.

48K people made the Sandy Hook Promise, and SHP added more than 78K new social media followers. Google searches for “Sandy Hook Promise” were 4x higher than at any time.

The PSA was also extremely emotionally engaging. YouTube completion rate of 90%, exceptionally high for a video over :60. Data showed that the spot connected with audiences across the political and cultural spectrum, and in fact people who strongly disagree with stricter gun laws had the highest levels of emotional engagement.