The aftermath of a mass shooting in America is all too familiar: Calls to pass stricter gun laws, pushback from the NRA, and nothing changes. But after the school shooting in Florida something did change: advocates started targeting companies with ties to the NRA. To support this cause we created “Branded Bulletproofs” to call out brands that are complicit by maintaining ties to the NRA. Our activation strategy was three-fold: The right moment (National School Walkout), the right place (a Brooklyn high school) and the right figure (a pair of students not holding signs, but wearing bulletproof vests as a potent symbol rebellion).

We needed a symbol to capture depth of the problem, a symbol of the insanity we’re living in. There is unique horror of a bulletproof vest strapped to a child at school, which we knew would be memorable. The logos on the vests proudly advertised “sponsor” brands: companies whose ties to the NRA made them complicit in gun violence. These sponsors enjoyed free exposure on CNN, The New Yorker, the rarified pixels of Reddit’s Front Page, and over 85k Twitter likes. It even earned support from Samuel L. Jackson by way of Instagram. Most importantly, YouTube recently announced a ban on firearms demo videos. That’s a start.