[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 a substitute, Sykes was resurfacing the language of a South Carolina college shooter—whose phrases have been deemed hole till he opened hearth in an elementary college playground.
Sandy Hook Promise is taking a brand new method 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 college capturing has by no means been extra authentic.
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 critically is the largest barrier to interrupt.
In 4 out of 5 college shootings, no less than one different particular person had information of the attacker’s plan however didn’t report it, the group studies. In line 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 centered on addressing what the warning indicators of violence are,” mentioned 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 funds and remains to be looking for donations, Lyons mentioned.
“We’ve already had no less than 15 averted college shootings, which implies 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,” mentioned Lyons, referring to the group’s scholar training program.
