[Sensitive content: This article discusses gun violence.]
When Wanda Sykes instructed her viewers that “Some shit’s gonna go down, and I don’t suppose you’re going to love it,” she wasn’t teeing up a heartless comedy set. As an alternative, Sykes was resurfacing the language of a South Carolina faculty shooter—whose phrases have been deemed hole till he opened hearth in an elementary faculty playground.
Sandy Hook Promise is taking a brand new strategy to gun violence prevention by spotlighting the lethal affiliation between violence and humor. Tapping comedians to current dismissed threats from actual perpetrators, the group and company BBDO NY is emphasizing the hazards of downplaying language when the specter of one other faculty taking pictures has by no means been extra reputable.
The marketing campaign places the hazards of downplaying and normalizing on full show. Whereas serving to audiences spot warning indicators is step one, Sandy Hook Promise acknowledges that convincing them to take these threats significantly is the largest barrier to interrupt.
In 4 out of 5 faculty shootings, no less than one different particular person had information of the attacker’s plan however didn’t report it, the group reviews. In keeping with chief working officer Daybreak Lyons, many of those threats exist on social media, and this written format makes their meanings much more ambiguous.
“Our earlier campaigns have actually targeted on addressing what the warning indicators of violence are,” stated Lyons, “however after doing that for a few years and dealing with our disaster middle, we acknowledge that typically individuals do acknowledge the indicators and nonetheless don’t say something. It’s about taking a look at these rationalizations that individuals make and turning them on their head.”
Along with sharing the marketing campaign on social channels and dealing with each comedians and influencers, Sandy Hook Promise continues to depend on donations from media manufacturers. The group has raised over 9 million for this PSA’s media price range and remains to be in search of donations, Lyons stated.
“We’ve already had no less than 15 averted faculty shootings, which signifies that there are children sitting at their dinner tables with their households due to the work that we’re doing and since college students knew that warning indicators to search for,” stated Lyons, referring to the group’s scholar training program.
