Situation: With 44,000 violent gun deaths, and 694 mass shootings in the U.S. annually, something surprising has happened, people are becoming numb. How can we break them out of their self-protective bubble and get them to write to congress and help change gun laws? They aren’t responding to political jibes or gruesome demonstrations of violence. Is there another approach we can take?

Objectives:

1) Get more Minnesotans to write/call/email their congressperson to change gun laws.

2) Help keep the gun violence issue front and center for politicians and voters.

3) Avoid anti-right political tonality

The Spark: If gun laws aren’t changing, what should we change?

Open on bold graphics of constantly rising U.S. gun violence statistics. Cut to Manny and Patricia Oliver (parents of Joaquin Oliver shot in the Parkland Florida school shooting) in the streets of Minneapolis, hosting a mobile kiosk with 12 bulletproof vests for adults and children. They ask Minnesotans of all backgrounds if they’d like to wear a bulletproof vest for shopping, theater, movies, exercising etc. Some people walk away. Some are angry. Many put on the vest and discuss what our country, and lives are coming to. The film ends with a young boy trying on the vest and looking at camera.

Art Cards:

Is this just something we learn to live with?

Is tragedy our new normal?

Or do we ask ourselves…

Is it our lives that need changing?

Or our gun laws?

Learn how to help at thenewlifevest.org

Logo: Change the Ref

The campaign garnered over 13,000,000 impressions. thenewlifevest.org has seen 5,340 visitors per month since the campaign launched. It also received five national TV segments, four local TV stories and two newspaper stories and has been shared thousands of times on social media. We hope it’s the last time we advertise an overtly fake product. But everyday Americans face a very real problem.