Since 2006 there have been 25 mass shootings in the United States.

Seven of those shootings took place in 2012, including the much talked about school massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT.

This reignited the gun control debate, with people on both sides of the issue pressing their politicians about how to vote on the newly proposed gun legislation bill.

States United to Prevent Gun Violence (SUPGV), a national, non-profit organization, took action.

The goal was simple: raise public awareness of current gun laws and encourage people to voice their desire for reform.

SUPGV developed a provocative TV commercial to support an online petition advocating a ban on assault weapons, stricter background checks on all gun sales and a limit on high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The spot was shared via a press release and owned channels.

News, political and industry outlets were stunned by the video and quickly picked up the story while TV stations donated airtime.

In just one week, with zero media dollars, the spot was viewed more than 1MM times, garnered over 75MM media impressions and resulted in thousands of petition signatures.

SUGPV succeeded in raising awareness, opening a few minds and giving everyday citizens a voice in Washington.

The film, titled “Ed – A Petition for Stronger Gun Laws,” launched on SUPGV.org, YouTube and Facebook on April 15th. We developed an overlay on the video, allowing viewers to simply click-through to sign a petition.

The next day, we issued a press release over the PR Newswire.

But due to the lack of media dollars, additional tactics were also used, leveraging viral tips and social media sharing to spread the message even farther.

With zero media dollars, the campaign delivered a great response for SUPGV who, until recently, had little to no awareness. After only one week since the break of this public service announcement, SUPGV garnered thousands of petition signatures, site visits increased by 3,180%, there were over a million views, 760,000 shares on Facebook, 164,000 comments online and 74m media impressions for an earned media value of $1,290,000. The campaign was also hailed by MSNBC and Time and lauded by Buzzfeed as “The Best Gun Control Commercial Ever Produced.”