Change the Ref wanted to raise awareness about the importance of holding elected candidates who opposed gun control accountable for the mass shootings that happen under their watch. The objective was to create images that showed the politicians’ stance on gun safety laws, and then the eventual disaster that followed due to the lack of state and federal laws that could prevent violent citizens from obtaining a weapon.

They wanted the campaign to serve as a blunt message to U.S. voters on the effects that come with electing politicians like the ones we targeted for the campaign, and expose the politicians for the consequences from their lack of support on gun safety.

We gathered published images of well-known U.S. politicians posing with assault rifles as if they were shooting. Then, we found other images from the same newspaper, but this time of mass shootings that took place in the politician's district during their time in office. Put side by side, the images tell a story of the consequences of voting for the very person aiming their gun.

To take it a step further, we prompt our audience to scan a QR code that leads to a microsite, where they can learn about these wrong candidates and pledge not to vote for them.

We spent hours sifting through hundreds of local and national newspapers to find coverage of politicians posing with machine guns. Then, we paired their photo with an image of a mass shooting from the politician’s own state that happened to run the very same newspaper their image was featured.

On the bottom of the image, our message says: Voting for a candidate who is against gun violence prevention has consequences. This election, choose wisely.

As a call to our audience to take control over vote, we also included a QR code that directed them to a microsite, which contained profiles on each politician highlighted in our campaign. On this site, our audience could learn more about each politician and then sign our pledge to not vote for the wrong candidate.

We displayed the ads in Florida newspapers and via OOH across the U.S., targeting politicians including Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Greg Abbott, Mitch McConnell, Rick Perry, March Rubio and others well-known for their stances on reducing gun violence.

The digital OOH display trucks were placed in traditionally conservative states, and helped our message reach the local community and allow more people to scan the QR code.

Since its launch, we’ve received 29,766 pledges to not vote for the wrong candidate, giving everyone the confidence and information to make an educated decision.