School years have a special place at the heart of American culture. Most adults see them as a carefree time of innocence, excitement, and growth. This vision is of course partially grounded in previous generations’ experience, seen through the rose-tinted lens of memory. It is also encoded in and reinforced, however, by a powerful network of cultural iconography and media representation, across decades of movies, television, popular music, and advertising.

The lived reality of today’s students is in stark contrast to older generations’ idealized perceptions, as the shadow of gun violence looms over school life. We asked our creative teams to survey the rich landscape of cultural symbols that surround the American school experience, to find an expression of the school ideal that felt safe and deeply normal, and then to hijack it with the reality of gun violence. We believed the juxtaposition between adult expectations and the reality of violence against young people would trigger significant emotional response.

Creative development zeroed in on a staple of US advertising culture: the back-to-school ad. What could be more normal, even banal, than seasonal ads touting school supplies?

We grounded our campaign in a :60 video that starts like any other US back-to-school retail ad: cheerful students touting their new school-year gear. Viewers soon realize something is horribly amiss, as a school shooting unfolds onscreen – first hinted at by subtle signs, then made painfully real by gripping physical and emotional drama. The back-to-school items that only minutes ago seemed harmless and innocent now become a matter of life or death, used by terrified students to escape or defend themselves from an active shooter.

Guided by subtle shifts in pacing, art direction, tone, and music, and powered by the performances of the young actors who keep to the formulaic script even as violence unfolds around them, the spot was described as “chilling,” “haunting,” “devastating,” “harrowing,” and “unforgettable.”

To build our campaign, we mirrored the channel strategy, tactics, and formats of seasonal back-to-school retail advertising – each time subverting category tropes with the realities of the “new normal.”

• We extended our public service announcement video (PSA) concept into online banners, and worked with digital partners to disseminate tailored social and OLV versions of the PSA.

• On Snapchat, we created a custom experience that drove directly to the SHP website through swipe-up functionality.

• We worked with teen influencers to bring our shocking twist on back-to-school to younger audiences in the medium they use to prepare for new school year, by introducing SHP’s message into seemingly innocuous social posts about clothes and sneakers.

• Using imagery from the PSA, we created a print ad designed to mimic traditional back-to-school circulars common in US newspapers every fall.

• We repurposed our PSA concept and assets as DOOH in key markets.

• We ran digital radio mirroring and subverting the typical scripts of back-to-school radio ads and partnered with the popular podcast Teenage Therapy to bring our message directly to high schoolers.